Belgian victims of sexual crimes committed by clergy and baptismal records On Friday, 29 August 2025, the daily newspaper Le Monde published a long article on a scandal that had been in the Flemish press for several years, known as the ‘Zelem nuns’ scandal, which in fact concerned the Catholic Read more…
Babu Gogineni (IAFT spokesperson) interviews (2019) two Australians who were sexually abused by religious in their childhood
Libre Pensée Française: Hello Keith. Could you introduce yourself? KPW : The National Secular Society was founded in 1866 and has always been internationally, as well as nationally, focussed. I became its CEO in 1996 and have been its President since retiring five years ago. We have six staff, led Read more…
In May 1942, 80 years ago, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in France sent a leaflet to the entire population about World War II. The leaflet which follows, unearthed by International Association of Freethinkers’ spokesperson Keith Porteous Wood, commanded allegiance to Marshall Pétain, a puppet of Hitler and the Nazis. Read more…
By Keith Porteous WOOD* The French bishops have announced, belatedly, that the Church will bear compensation for victims of clerical sexual abuse<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-catholic-church-abuse-victims-b1954021.html>, and that it will be proportionate, as the French Commission CIASE recommended. It estimated that at least a third of a million minors were victims of abuse in Read more…
By Keith Porteous Wood – October 8, 2021 An inquiry commissioned by the Catholic Church into clerical abuse in France has just concluded that victims of both clerics and laicity (teachers, for example) totalled around a third of a million since 1950. In no country in the world has such Read more…
Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) cites numerous examples of clerics seemingly not being subjected to French law for failing to report suspected clerical abuse of minors, as has been required since 2000. He argues that fundamental changes are needed for victims Read more…
Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) considers the contradictions of the French courts’ final ruling on Cardinal Barbarin’s failure to report suspected clerical abuse of minors and its troubling consequences France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled on 14 April that Read more…
by Keith Porteous Wood President of the National Secular Society (NSS) and spoke-person of the International Association of Freethought Fri, 05 Feb 2021 The misery which women and children faced for decades highlights the damage that can be done when states leave religious authority unchecked, says NSS president Keith Porteous Read more…
By Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of l’Association Internationale de la Libre Pensée, and president of the National Secular Society (of the United Kingdom) December 2020 Last month, the Pope’s former Ambassador to France, ex-Papal Nuncio Luigi Ventura, was tried for sexually assaulting five young men, including a Paris City Hall Read more…