Cardinal denies claims he was forced to censor new book

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has denied that he was censored or unduly influenced by anyone in writing his recently published memoirs, An English Spring.

According to an article in The Guardian this week, the cardinal was “forced to cut chunks from his new book relating to the crisis in his ministry in which he failed to report a paedophile priest to the police and let him continue working”. The priest was later jailed.

The article claimed that the sections the cardinal cut included one in which he had defended the right to protect priests when they had erred, replacing it with a lament about bishops’ failure to prioritise abuse victims over their priests.

Another part said to be excised from the final version was critical of the Church’s failure to root out systemic paedophilia.

Following the publication of the claims, the cardinal issued a statement saying: “I would like to make it clear that any question of censorship or undue influence over the writing of my memoirs is completely untrue.”

It is understood that while his book was being written the cardinal decided to send drafts of chapters to several friends and colleagues, who came back with suggestions, after which some parts were redrafted.

Robin Baird-Smith of Bloomsbury, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s publisher, said he felt it was “regrettable” that the cuts had been made, but that as an author the cardinal had every right to make his own decision about what did and did not make the final cut of the book.