Cardinal Vincent Nichols, England’s leading Roman Catholic, is blasted by abuse inquiry and accused of putting Church’s reputation before safety of children
- Cardinal Vincent Nichols is head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales
- 130 allegations of child sex abuse have been made against the Archdiocese
- Only 13 people have been convicted of serious offences, an inquiry has found
- One of those investigated was the son of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien
The country’s leading Roman Catholic was yesterday accused of putting his Church’s reputation before the protection of children.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols chose to attack critics of sex abuse by priests while the offenders escaped justice, a report said.
In a damning verdict, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said the Catholic leader in England and Wales ‘focused too much on the reputation of the Church rather than the welfare of children and the impacts of child sexual abuse on victims and survivors’.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, pictured, has been heavily criticised by an investigation into child sex abuse in the Catholic church over his focus on the organisation’s reputation rather than the impact of the crimes on victims and survivors
Inquiry chairman Professor Alexis Jay said: ‘The Church could have stopped children being abused if it had not been so determined to protect its own reputation’
The scathing report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Birmingham is a new blow to the reputation of the Catholic Church following years of allegations of paedophile priests going unpunished.
It said that there had been 130 allegations of child sexual abuse made against 78 individuals associated with the Archdiocese over a period of nearly 90 years. Priests accused include the son of Lord of the Rings novelist JRR Tolkien.
‘The true scale of the offending is likely to be far higher,’ the report said.
The inquiry panel found the church had repeatedly failed to alert police to allegations. Only 13 people have been convicted of serious offences, it said, and three cautioned, while many suspects died before allegations could be investigated.
The report said: ‘In some cases, the lack of action by the church meant that the abuser was free to continue to commit acts of child sexual abuse.’ Cardinal Nichols ran the Birmingham Archdiocese for a decade before becoming Archbishop of Westminster in 2009. He faced allegations in a 2003 BBC documentary over a priest called James Robinson, a serial child abuser.
Robinson had merely been moved to another parish after the first complaints were made about him in the 1980s, and in 1985 he fled to the US. However the Church continued to give him money.
The BBC documentary makers tracked him to a California trailer park. Cardinal Nichols’s response to the BBC allegations was to complain of anti-Catholic bias. The report said he ‘focused too much on his grievance with the programme makers and too little on the public interest in exposing the abuse committed by the clergy and the harm done to the victims’.
In another case, ‘little or no steps’ were taken to shield children from the risk of abuse by Father John Tolkien. The Archdiocese settled claims over allegations against the priest, who died in 2003 and was never convicted of a crime.
Inquiry chairman Professor Alexis Jay said: ‘The Church could have stopped children being abused if it had not been so determined to protect its own reputation.’
The Archdiocese of Birmingham, now headed by Archbishop Bernard Longley, said: ‘We accept we have failed victims and survivors of abuse and again apologise for the grievous failings we have made in the past.’