Author: Keith Porteous Wood
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The Catholic Church’s record on abuse demands accountability, not more meaningless apologies
Posted: Fri, 24 Aug 2018 by Keith Porteous Wood
As the pope prepares to visit Ireland, NSS president Keith Porteous Wood says the international community must confront the Vatican over its shameful record on child abuse and demand action to bring secular justice.
Forty years ago, mass attendance per capita... Read More »
Religious power and privilege failed the victims in the Peter Ball affair
Posted: Sat, 11 Aug 2018 by Keith Porteous Wood
In this long read NSS president Keith Porteous Wood explains how all arms of the law co-operated to protect the now former bishop Peter Ball for decades and refutes claims that "it couldn't happen now".
Peter Ball started misusing his religious power to sexually... Read More »
Anglicanism's 'purple circle' of bishops cannot be trusted over child abuse
Posted: Sat, 28 Jul 2018 by Keith Porteous Wood
NSS president Keith Porteous Wood reflects on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse's hearings into the case of the abusive bishop Peter Ball.
Under the guise of schemes with names such as "Give a Year to God", former Church of England bishop Peter... Read More »
Church dysfunctionality laid bare by child sexual abuse inquiry
Posted: Sun, 11 Mar 2018 by Keith Porteous Wood
As the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse turns its attention to the Church of England, Keith Porteous Wood says it must act on evidence which has highlighted the desperate need to hold the C of E to account.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual... Read More »
Cardinal Murphy O'Connor's cover-up of child abusers must be a lesson to the Catholic Church
Posted: Fri, 08 Sep 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster, died on 1 September. NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood seeks to set the historical record straight with this alternative obituary. This piece was originally published on Conatus News. It... Read More »
Ireland’s hospitals: some welcome secularisation
Posted: Fri, 01 Sep 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood detects a long-overdue and decisive turn towards secularism in publicly funded healthcare in Ireland, an area in which the Catholic Church has until now been predominant.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has, until recently,... Read More »
The confessional shouldn’t shield child abuse from reporting
Posted: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
The Australian abuse commission is right not to exempt the confessional from reporting obligations, and its rigour should provide a model to reverse the backsliding already all too clear in the UK, argues Keith Porteous Wood.
Should priests be legally bound... Read More »
Church of England’s links with insurer undermines justice for survivors of clergy abuse
Posted: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
Anglican abuse victims believe the Church's close links with its insurer results in lower settlements to victims. NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood thinks they've got a point, and offers solutions to put things right.
An insurance company connected... Read More »
The greater the religious fervency, the greater the homophobia
Posted: Fri, 07 Jul 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
On Pride weekend, NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood highlights the interconnectedness between the fight for secularism and equality for LGBTQ people.
Homosexuality, or at least homosexual activity, especially by men, has been a long-standing subject... Read More »
Irish National Maternity Hospital: “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!”
Posted: Mon, 05 Jun 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
The determination to give a hospital to a disgraced religious order, in spite of public outrage, is the very antithesis of secularism. But the episode has prompted calls for fundamental changes in the relationship between church and state, writes Keith Porteous... Read More »
Anglican stance on women and gays could trigger disestablishment
Posted: Sun, 14 May 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
Keith Porteous Wood argues that, with the CofE's hierarchy so at odds with the values on equality held by the country at large, an Anglican vicar is right to question its status as the 'national church'.
Andrew Foreshew-Cain, the first Anglican vicar to have... Read More »
Who is running Ireland – the Government or the Church?
Posted: Mon, 27 Mar 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
The reach and power of the Catholic Church has waned considerably in recent years in Ireland. But there are troubling signs that its undue influence over the country is returning, writes Keith Porteous Wood.
It is difficult to envisage now, but when the UK... Read More »
Mass grave full of children's remains at Catholic home reveals atrocities on a massive scale
Posted: Tue, 07 Mar 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
With the latest revelations about human remains in an Irish Mother and Baby home, Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, seeks answers about how such atrocities could have happened on such a scale, and what can be done now.... Read More »
Stop pharmacies refusing prescriptions for emergency contraception on religious grounds
Posted: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
With the regulator considering curtailing 'conscience' objections to contraception prescriptions, Keith Porteous Wood urges supporters to respond to the consultation in the interests of vulnerable patients.
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has launched... Read More »
Norway’s separation of Church and State: a work in progress
Posted: Wed, 04 Jan 2017 by Keith Porteous Wood
Norway's supposed separation of Church and State, effective from 1 January 2017, is a very positive step, but it's still a work in progress, writes Keith Porteous Wood.
Both Norway and the United Kingdom have populations that are very secular in outlook, with... Read More »
The new UN Secretary General must not allow religion to override human rights
Posted: Fri, 21 Oct 2016 by Keith Porteous Wood
UN Secretary General designate needs to ignore Catholic pressure to row back on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and Gay Rights, writes Keith Porteous Wood.
The former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has been officially appointed as the next... Read More »
The House of Lords and religion
Posted: Fri, 12 Aug 2016 by Keith Porteous Wood
The Parliamentary recess provides welcome respite from the frenetic activity of the political battles being fought out in the chamber and corridors, allowing us to stand back and have a wry look at the institution itself, writes Keith Porteous Wood.
With the... Read More »
Church and State united in denying religious freedom to young people
Posted: Tue, 05 Jul 2016 by Keith Porteous Wood
NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood writes on the union between church and state that is denying freedom of religion to young people – in defiance of the United Nations and human rights.
The UN recently recommended that the UK "repeal legal provisions... Read More »
Do we need ‘religious approaches’ to Human Rights?
Posted: Thu, 17 Mar 2016 by Keith Porteous Wood
Keith Porteous Wood offers a critical review of a new book that claims Human Rights owe their existence to religion – when the greatest modern threat to Human Rights comes from organised religion.
A book on 'Religious approaches to Human Rights' has just... Read More »
Spotlight: This hard-hitting film salutes the journalists who exposed the power of a deeply corrupt institution
Posted: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 by Keith Porteous Wood
Keith Porteous Wood previews Spotlight, the hard-hitting film which depicts the Boston Globe's investigation into the cover-up of child sex abuse by the Catholic Church.
Spotlight, a film released this Friday (29 January), follows the Boston Globe's dogged... Read More »
Damning details emerge about establishment cover-up of Anglican sex abuse
Posted: Mon, 04 Jan 2016 by Keith Porteous Wood
New revelations about the extent of the letter-writing campaign to help disgraced bishop Peter Ball escape charges raise urgent questions about the extent of the establishment cover-up, writes Keith Porteous Wood.
Former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball was... Read More »
National occasions need not be dominated by religion – as France’s commemoration ceremony so poignantly demonstrated
Posted: Tue, 01 Dec 2015 by Keith Porteous Wood
France's recent ceremony for those killed in the Paris attacks was a moving demonstration that religiously neutral ceremonies are a powerful way to unite people regardless of faith or politics; it is something the UK could emulate for our own public ceremonies,... Read More »
Peter Ball sex abuse case: 20 questions that must be answered
Posted: Wed, 07 Oct 2015 by Keith Porteous Wood
Any genuine inquiry into the handling of allegations of child sex abuse by Bishop Peter Ball must answer key questions about alleged cover-ups by the Church, police and CPS, argues Keith Porteous Wood
The National Secular Society has been closely monitoring... Read More »
Assisted Dying Bill: The Church has no right to deny dignity in death
Posted: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 by Keith Porteous Wood
The media give too much weight to the views of faith leaders who have failed to deal with the central issue of assisted dying, which is alleviating the suffering of others, argues Keith Porteous Wood.
While religious leaders are as entitled as anyone else... Read More »
The BBC is failing to respond to fair criticism of its religious output
Posted: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 by Keith Porteous Wood
The NSS has objected numerous times over the past half century to the exclusion of non-believers from BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day but it now seems as though the BBC will not even consider objections to the programme, raising questions about how the Corporation... Read More »
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