Cardinal Vincent Nichols came under attack from lawyers and abuse survivors for his handling of child sex abuse scandals in the Archdiocese of Birmingham at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse this week.
The Cardinal, who was Archbishop of Birmingham from 2002 to 2009, was vilified for his approach to financial compensation and disclosures, for a lack of compassion and for not sorting out tensions between national and local safeguarding offices.
But his own long-awaited appearance at the inquiry on Tuesday to give evidence and his version of events was cancelled after he fell ill on Remembrance Sunday.
At least 13 priests from the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham have been convicted or cautioned for sex attacks on children and vulnerable adults since the 1950s and around 78 people have been affected by their assaults, the inquiry heard at the start of a five-day hearing into the Archdiocese, the largest Catholic diocese in England and Wales, as part of its inquiry into the Catholic Church which in turn forms part of the nationwide inquiry into sexual abuse of children.
Evidence given at the inquiry this week revealed a diocesan culture of clericalism, secrecy and authoritarianism that was slow to change, even when the Catholic Church in England and Wales began to put its house in order with the Nolan Report into child protection in 2001 and the follow-up Cumberlege Report in 2007.
The inquiry was also told that there was tension between the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (COPCA) and its successor the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service, which had advisory roles, and Birmingham archdiocese’s own child protection office. The situation was particularly difficult between 2004 and 2005, the inquiry was told, when there was a divergence of opinion between COPCA and the archdiocese despite the fact that the agency’s chair at the time was Vincent Nichols, who was also then Archbishop of Birmingham. It led, said inquiry leading counsel, Jacqueline Carey, to “an impasse”, while solicitor Richard Scorer said that officials from COPCA and CSAS observed that Archbishop Nichols was “resistant to intervention” [by their departments].
Mr Scorer also criticized Cardinal Nichols for a lack of disclosure over the case of Fr Tolkien. In 2003 the Church paid £15,000 in an out-of-court settlement to Christopher Carrie who said he had been abused at the age of 11 by the son of the writer JRR Tolkien, and the payment was made without admission of liability. But diocesan documents show that Archbishop Nichols knew about previous incidents involving Fr Tolkien and that he would rather pay a one-off settlement rather than have the case go further and have to disclose the documents.
The inquiry panel, chaired by Alexis Jay, also heard about the activities of two former priests, Samuel Penney and James Robinson, who carried out numerous acts of abuse on several victims, and were subsequently convicted, imprisoned and laicized.
Ms Carey said that complaints were first made in the archdiocese about Samuel Penney’s behaviour towards children in the 1980s, while he served as a priest in several parishes in Birmingham. James Robinson was jailed for 21 years, after being extradited from the US where he had transferred to work as a priest after being given a reference by the then Archbishop Couve de Merville, despite allegations against him.
In October 2003, Cardinal Nichols complained to the BBC that it was biased in its coverage of the Catholic Church after it broadcast Kenyon Confronts about James Robinson. Witness A31, who participated in the programme, told the inquiry that he asked several times to meet Archbishop Nichols. “He wrote once and said he was sorry and we could meet in the future but we have never, ever sat down, not once. That is his choice. The abuse has destroyed my life”.
Cardinal Nichols had been due to make an apology to victims during his evidence.
Loading ...
