Concerned About Abuse in the Diocese of Salford
Press release - 12 May 2016
The group Concerned About Abuse in the Diocese of Salford (https://www.facebook.com/ concernedaboutabuseinthecathol icdioceseofsalford/?ref= bookmarks ) is asking several questions of the Diocese of Salford and its bishop following the first day of the trial of Canon Mortimer
Stanley, former parish priest of St Vincent’s, Rochdale (http://www.rochdaleonline.co. uk/news-features/2/news- headlines/102921/retired- priest-father-mortimer- stanley-accused-of-sexually- abusing-children-over-four- decades).
Spokesperson, Dr Philip Gilligan said,
"In December 2013 when the media first reported that Canon Stanley was being questioned under police
caution, Salford Diocese gave a statement which said: “The Diocese is
co-operating fully with the police and the statutory agencies in these
investigations in line with the robust safeguarding policies put in place by
the Catholic Church in this country in recent years.” (http://www.
But what the statement from the Diocese of Salford in 2013
did not report was what actions it had taken during the preceding eleven years that
followed Canon Stanley’s ‘retirement’ as a parish priest in the Diocese of
Salford. This has,however, become a very pertinent question now that we know that
the jury at Manchester's Minshull Street Court was told on Wednesday (11 May
2016) that Canon Stanley had “retired in 2002 and returned to Ireland shortly
after the mother of one of the female complainants informed teaching staff that
he had inappropriately kissed her daughter” (See:http://www.mirror.co.uk/ news/uk-news/god-like-priest- who-playground-7941853).
We need to know from the Diocese of Salford and from
Bishop John Arnold, in particular: Who in the diocese was told about the
information given to the teaching staff at St Vincent’s? What action was taken? Was
the matter ever discussed with the Diocesan Child Protection Co-ordinator or
the Diocesan Child Protection Adviser or by the Diocesan Child Protection
Commission, established at the beginning of 2002? Was the information shared with the police and other statutory
agencies in 2002?
Could the matters now before the court have been dealt with more than a
decade ago, if someone in the Diocese of Salford had acted differently and in
accordance with the recommendations that Bishop Brain pledged to implement when
he accepted them in November 2001?"