Is Cafod going to stand by its man? Despite the board of trustees holding a meeting last weekend, the Catholic charity tells me it won’t be releasing a statement about the controversy surrounding its head of media and PR, Damian McBride. Cafod initially vacillated over whether to accept royalties from McBride’s memoir of his time as Gordon Brown’s spin-doctor before deciding to spurn the offer. Since then it has come under renewed pressure to sever ties with him.
Its wavering seems to be taking the heat off McBride and the tide of opinion is turning in his favour. In a letter to the international Catholic paper The Tablet, Fiona Fox, Cafod’s previous head of media, points out that “Cafod was fully aware of McBride’s past when it recruited him” and says that she is “dismayed by the Catholic community’s reaction to the demonisation of this man … he deserved to be judged differently by Catholics who espouse values of forgiveness and compassion.”
Will Cafod’s trustees find such public forgiveness in their hearts?
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