Joseph Quigley: Birmingham Archdiocese saw abusive priest as 'struggling'
Joseph Quigley, a former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, was jailed last year.
A report by Barnado's found the church was aware of concerns but did not listen to victims, challenge his behaviour or deal with complaints.
The report said concerns had been raised about Quigley, from Staffordshire, as early as 1990.
There was evidence the church was aware of an "immoral relationship" while he was working in Warwickshire but it was not considered a safeguarding issue because the boy was 16.
"The view of [Quigley's] behaviour, being that of a Catholic priest who had a 'relationship' with another adult male, rather than an abuser of an adolescent boy, persisted without any challenge," the report said.
His status as a revered priest allowed the abuse to continue for years. The report said that without the intervention of one of his victim's therapists in 2018, it was possible his behaviour would never have been brought to light.
Quigley was convicted of multiple counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, sexual assault, child cruelty, and false imprisonment.
In 2019, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found that if Birmingham's Archdiocese followed more than 130 allegations of abuse against 78 individuals associated with the church.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-62241716
Joseph Quigley, a former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, was jailed last year.
A report by Barnado's found the church was aware of concerns but did not listen to victims, challenge his behaviour or deal with complaints.
The report said concerns had been raised about Quigley, from Staffordshire, as early as 1990.
There was evidence the church was aware of an "immoral relationship" while he was working in Warwickshire but it was not considered a safeguarding issue because the boy was 16.
"The view of [Quigley's] behaviour, being that of a Catholic priest who had a 'relationship' with another adult male, rather than an abuser of an adolescent boy, persisted without any challenge," the report said.
His status as a revered priest allowed the abuse to continue for years. The report said that without the intervention of one of his victim's therapists in 2018, it was possible his behaviour would never have been brought to light.
Quigley was convicted of multiple counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, sexual assault, child cruelty, and false imprisonment.
In 2019, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found that if Birmingham's Archdiocese followed more than 130 allegations of abuse against 78 individuals associated with the church.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-62241716
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"
