BBC Olds

On "Midlands Today" this evening the unfortunate victim of an abusing priest was featured requesting an apology from Pope Benedict for the abuse he had suffered. I seemed to remember something and so, later, did a bit of googling. The priest concerned had been imprisoned in 1998 and subsequently laicised by Pope John Paul in 2001 before dying in prison that same year. All this was recorded in a BBC news article from 2004 in which the authorities of the children's home in which the crimes had occurred were recorded as formally apologising to victims, one of whom, using the same pseudonym as was used in this evening's programme, said that the apology (2004) meant "closure" and "the end of it". I rather suspect that the obsessive focus of so much within the media upon the abuse issue may be re-opening wounds for many of these unfortunate souls.