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The diocese of Northampton, England, confirmed that a Catholic bishop in England has been charged with child rape.
Bishop David James Oakley of Northampton was charged with two counts of rape against a female under the age of 16.
The diocese of Northampton confirmed that the bishop “has been charged after an investigation into non-recent safeguarding allegations.”
The diocese could not provide further comment.
“We understand that this will be very distressing for all concerned but cannot comment further on an active legal process,” the diocese said in its statement.
The statement provided direction to safeguarding resources.
“If you have any safeguarding concerns please contact either the diocesan safeguarding team or the police directly,” the diocese said.
Oakley was ordained in 1980 as a priest and became bishop of Northampton in 2020. In October of last year, he took a leave of absence for “personal reasons.” Oakley was an episcopal advisor for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England and Wales and was rector of St. Maryʼs College, Oscott, the seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, from 2013 to 2020.
English news outlets reported that the bishop was a strong contender for bishop of Westminster in recent years.
Oakley will appear in court for an initial hearing August 14.
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sadness – read “Humility of Heart” paragraph 28
Where to begin? If the Bishops expect the laity to listen to them, their personal conduct must be beyond reproach. This conduct does more to harm the Church than any action by an atheist.
I pray for the victim and her family – this is tragic in every sense of the word. It illustrates that Bishop or not this is a human being and not a sacred omnipotent nor omniscient being. We are all capable of evil acts – we therefore need to acknowledge our frailty and remember our strength is in our Saviour. This is our only hope. I am impressed that this is published, as only truth and transparency reminds us all of our need for humility and prayer as evilness is only a ‘bite away’. Peace be with us all.
Why have not all these hundreds if not thousands of priests been excommunicated? We see what the CC has done and will do again with the SSPX, which has not done anything sinful, just the opposite. Seems that such horrible acts as these priests commit are less bad than trying to uphold the traditions of the Church.
Romans 1:26-27
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a]
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
“[Certain men in church] come in gazing about at the beauty of women; others curious about the blooming youth of boys. After this, do you not marvel that [lightning] bolts are not launched [from heaven], and all these things are not plucked up from their foundations? For worthy both of thunderbolts and hell are the things that are done; but God, who is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forbears awhile his wrath, calling you to repentance and amendment” (Homilies on Matthew 3:3 [A.D. 391]).
“All of these affections [in Rom. 1:26–27] . . . were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases” (Homilies on Romans 4 [A.D. 391]).
“[The men] have done an insult to nature itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more shame than men” (ibid.).