A Roman Catholic bishop tried to find work at an overseas charity for a disgraced priest despite knowing he was a registered sex offender
Bishop Byrne tried to get Father A work with an overseas charity which works with vulnerable people, giving few details of his friend’s offending history and saying that he was subject to sex offenders’ register requirements for only a few more months.
The charity refused to appoint him.
Bishop Byrne also ignored safeguarding issues about Canon Michael McCoy, whom he promoted to be cathedral dean, despite there being concerns about his behaviour dating back to 1996, the report said.
The concerns included him offering young people foreign holidays and providing them with alcohol despite them being underage.
Former lay employees and clergy gave clear accounts that Bishop Byrne was notified about Fr McCoy’s “significant history”, including an “in-person” hand-over from his predecessor in 2019.
Nevertheless, Bishop Bryne indicated he wanted to go ahead with the appointment.
The report said it could not say whether Fr McCoy committed offences, but he “displayed a clear pattern of grooming behaviour over the years”.
He killed himself after Northumbria Police informed him that an investigation into historic abuse allegations was to begin.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2...g-diocese/
Bishop Byrne tried to get Father A work with an overseas charity which works with vulnerable people, giving few details of his friend’s offending history and saying that he was subject to sex offenders’ register requirements for only a few more months.
The charity refused to appoint him.
Bishop Byrne also ignored safeguarding issues about Canon Michael McCoy, whom he promoted to be cathedral dean, despite there being concerns about his behaviour dating back to 1996, the report said.
The concerns included him offering young people foreign holidays and providing them with alcohol despite them being underage.
Former lay employees and clergy gave clear accounts that Bishop Byrne was notified about Fr McCoy’s “significant history”, including an “in-person” hand-over from his predecessor in 2019.
Nevertheless, Bishop Bryne indicated he wanted to go ahead with the appointment.
The report said it could not say whether Fr McCoy committed offences, but he “displayed a clear pattern of grooming behaviour over the years”.
He killed himself after Northumbria Police informed him that an investigation into historic abuse allegations was to begin.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2...g-diocese/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
