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	Cardinal O'Brien Seeks to Reassure Churchgoers By Lucy Christie Press and Journal April 5, 2010 http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1676114/?UserKey= [with video] SCOTLAND -- Leader of Scots catholics says priesthood is doing all it can to keep youngsters safe THE leader of Scotland's Catholics said the Church in this country was doing "everything it possibly can" to safeguard children from sexual abuse by priests. Cardinal Keith O'Brien made the reassurances after the Church was accused of systematically covering up allegations over the years. The cardinal said checks were carried out on everyone entering the priesthood in Scotland to ensure the safety of youngsters. He told BBC Radio Scotland's The Investigation programme he did not believe Scotland to have had as many cases as other countries "but even one is an abhorrent thing to have taken place". He said: "Consequently we have got to do everything we possibly can, and I think in Scotland we have done everything we possible can, with our safeguarding rules and regulations, the way people are checked now. "People are tested psychologically before entering the priesthood to ensure that children are safe wherever they are." The cardinal said representatives of the Catholic Church guilty of molesting children should, as in Jesus' teachings, "be cast away with millstones round their necks". In the interview, Cardinal O'Brien also discussed the first state visit by a Pope to the UK this year. Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Edinburgh and Glasgow during the Scottish leg of his trip in September. The cardinal predicted fewer people will turn out for an open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, this time than in 1982 when Pope John Paul II addressed a crowd of 300,000. He said: "I think there will probably be fewer people, perhaps because there are fewer people in Scotland and also fewer Catholics than there were then." The cardinal said of the event 28 years ago: "Scotland was centre of the stage, literally worldwide, while John Paul II was here. "Perhaps the whole community of Scotland thought, well the Catholics can put on a pretty good show. "When you think of that Mass in Bellahouston Park, it was so beautiful, parallel with anything I have seen at the Vatican itself or in other parts of the world, a great proportion, not just of the Catholic community but of the Christian community and so on, coming to greet him. "I think it was a very important turning point in the acknowledgement of the role of the Catholic Church in Scotland." At St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh yesterday, Cardinal O'Brien, apologised to abuse victims. He said: "We can take no comfort from the fact that only a small percentage of priests committed such crimes – the impact of their sinful acts is very large. Their actions harmed the lives of their victims, caused great hatred to be directed at their innocent brother priests and left ordinary Catholics demoralised and confused. "One might say that there has been a great public humiliation of the Church, as in some way or another we realise that we have not been as alert as we should have been to the evils being perpetrated around us, whatever our particular position."
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