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.
The man got close to the boys and the relationship eventually escalated to him performing sex acts on both boys when they were between 14 and 15 years old.
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The incidents occurred between January 2005 and December 2006 with one youngster, and between April and December 2007 with the second.
Defence lawyer Edmond Pereira said the two victims were now working adults with their own families who had “moved on” with their lives and there was no evidence they had been “marred” by the experience.
Pereira also said his client had gone through four to five years of therapy in the US in relation to the offences committed.
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District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan noted the “egregious abuse of trust” in the case and said the sentence needed to convey society’s disapproval of the harm caused by the man’s actions and the need to protect vulnerable victims.
Details of the man, his victims and where the offences took place cannot be disclosed due to legal restrictions.
While the Catholic Church has been mired in large-scale child sexual abuse cases in the United States and in Europe, such occurrences have been rare in Singapore.
In 2018, after a report in Pennsylvania in the US detailed the abuse of 1,000 children in six dioceses, Goh said Singapore had investigated a handful of such cases that were “judged inconclusive”.
On Thursday, Goh said it was “sobering” to have such an incident happen in Singapore.
“Many good Church leaders have sacrificed much to remain faithful to the gospel and have worked hard to instil the values of our Catholic faith in the young. A cloud of suspicion now hangs over those who have given themselves to live a life of service,” he said.
“Let this incident be a wake-up call for us all to take our spiritual life seriously and be awakened from a complacent faith.”
