Paedophile priests? In Sinkie land??

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

by Bertha Henson

Here’s what the Catholic Church in Singapore doesn’t need: claims that a couple of priests are paedophiles. A Ms Jane Leigh, 36, has written a book, My Nine Lives, claiming that two priests had sexually abused her when she was 14. She moved to Australia for her studies not long after and is now a clinical psychotherapist and a mother of two teenagers.

Go buy TNP.

She did not name the priests but did disclose the Catholic order one of the them belonged to. The other has left the clergy. TNP contacted both men who were shocked at the allegations. Her book contained details of how a priest 20 years older had taken her out for movies, ice cream and dinners. And how visits to Changi Airport’s viewing gallery were marked by kissing and groping. They had sex. But the relationship “soured’’ two years later. She went for counselling with a second priest whom, she claimed, in turn molested her.

What a story! TNP asked her some tough questions about why she was spilling the beans so to speak, only now. And why she didn’t report them to the authorities, or to the Archdiocese of Singapore. Seems the Archdiocese had asked her to make a formal report to its Professional Standards Office, which handles complaints about sexual abuse. A spokesman said she could also file a police report and in fact preferred that she do so.

But she doesn’t want to because she doesn’t want to go through the pain and anguish, or get put through the shredder, she told TNP.

Now, it’s pretty unfair of her to cast a slur on a whole church like this because she wants “closure’’. The two priests are easily identifiable even though she used pseudonyms. There might well be a case for defamation – unless, of course, her claims are true.

As for how the Catholic Church will react, it could get an Australian court order to stop publication and circulation, and have the order enforced in Singapore. The laity will be watching to see if it will protect the reputation of the clergy. It could also launch its own investigation and make the results as public as the book.

By the way, Ms Leigh’s book also said her parents made her give her father oral sex. Her father is dead and her mother who is in Singapore declined to speak to TNP.


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