Singapore archbishop ‘dismayed’, ‘ashamed’ as Catholic Church parishioner jailed for sex acts with teenage boys
- Archbishop William Goh apologises on behalf of Church after ‘prominent’ man in city state’s Catholic community pleads guilty to two charges
- While the Church has been embroiled in many large-scale child sex abuse cases in US and Europe, such occurrences have been rare in Singapore
Singapore’s Archbishop William Goh, the country’s most senior Catholic cleric, on Thursday apologised on behalf of the Church after a member of its religious order was jailed for five years for sexual acts on two teenage boys.
In a pastoral letter published on Thursday, Goh said he was “dismayed, shocked, and ashamed” to learn of the case that occurred more than 10 years ago.
“I humbly apologise on behalf of the Church,” wrote Goh. “I want to assure you that the Archdiocese takes very seriously the provision of a safe environment, especially where children and young persons are present.”
On Thursday, a member of the Church – whom the national newspaper The Straits Times said was not a priest – pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily having carnal intercourse against the order of nature and one charge under the country’s Children and Young Persons Act.
