\t\t\t\t207<\/p>\n
(OSV News) \u2014\u00a0The Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of England and Wales renewed its commitment to safeguarding after police in Staffordshire announced that a bishop in central England was charged with the rape of a minor.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a> published June 25, the bishops said the news of the accusations against Bishop David James Oakley of Northampton was \u201cdeeply distressing for all, both within the Catholic community and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are profoundly aware that the report of this allegation may reawaken painful memories for many people and again offer an unreserved apology to those who have been hurt by abuse in the Catholic Church in England and Wales,\u201d the bishops\u2019 conference said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The statement was signed by Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster and Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham,\u00a0 the president and vice president of the bishops\u2019 conference, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n Staffordshire Police confirmed June 24 that Bishop Oakley, 70, was charged with two counts of rape against a \u201cfemale under 16.\u201d<\/p>\n Bishop Oakley arrested in September<\/p>\n According to the statement, Bishop Oakley was arrested in September after the crime was reported to the police and is set to appear at Cannock Magistrates\u2019 Court Aug. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Diocese of Northampton, where he had served as bishop since 2020, also confirmed the charges against Bishop Oakley \u201cafter an investigation into non-recent safeguarding allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand that this will be very distressing for all concerned but cannot comment further on an active legal process,\u201d the diocese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n BBC News reported that police said the crimes were alleged to have taken place between February 2000 and February 2001. During that period, then-Father Oakley was serving as parish priest at St. Giles Church in the central English town of Cheadle.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time of his arrest, the diocese announced that Bishop Oakley was on a leave of absence for personal reasons, according to The Tablet. Several months later, a local Catholic blog, Clerical Whispers, had leaked a message from the vicar general to diocesan clergy confirming that the leave of absence was \u201cdue to an allegation\u201d made against the bishop.<\/p>\n Procedures in \u2018Vos Estis Lux Mundi\u2019<\/p>\n According to \u201cVos Estis Lux Mundi<\/a>\u201d (\u201cYou are the light of the world\u201d), the Church\u2019s procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or the cover up of abuse, once an accusation against a bishop is received, it must be sent<\/a> \u201cboth to the Holy See and to the Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province where the person reported is domiciled.\u201d<\/p>\n Neil Roseman, communications director for the Diocese of Northampton, told OSV News June 26 that \u201cat present, Bishop David Oakley remains withdrawn from public ministry.\u201d However, he declined to comment on the status of the canonical investigation against the bishop.\u00a0<\/p>\n In their statement, the bishops of England and Wales reassured the faithful of their commitment to safeguard and maintain a \u201czero-tolerance policy for abuse in the Church and in wider society.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Cooperating fully\u2019 with the authorities<\/p>\n The bishops also said they were \u201ccooperating fully with the statutory authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur immediate focus is on providing pastoral support and ensuring that we, as the Church, can continue our mission safely and transparently,\u201d the statement read. \u201cAnybody who comes to our parishes, schools and communities must be safe and we are resolute in our commitment to safeguarding.\u201d<\/p>\n They also invited victims to meet with them \u201cso that we can learn from and be guided by their experiences as we continue to make our communities safe places.\u201d<\/p>\n Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"207 (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0The Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of England and Wales renewed its commitment to safeguarding after police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-660604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}