Priest laicised by Rome on request of Westminster diocese

A priest who is said to have groomed a 15 year old girl has been laicised by Rome.

Peter Conniffe is no longer a priest after the Diocese of Westminster urged Rome to intervene in his case.

Details of Conniffe’s case were heard  at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse when his victim, A711, gave evidence. She told the inquiry that from the late 1970s onwards, when she was 15, she was groomed and sexually abused by RC-F500 (as Conniffe was known at the inquiry). RC-F500 was her parish priest and a member of the Servite Order and in his 30s or 40s. A711 said the abuse continued while she was at university and that when she was 24 years old RC-F500 raped her.

In October 2016, RC-A711 reported the abuse to the Church and the Servite Order and in December 2016, the case was transferred to the Diocese of Westminster due to the ill-health of the original safeguarding officer. 

IICSA heard that there were failures on Westminster Diocese’s part to provide A711 with risk assessment feedback, or to correspond or meet with her. The victim eventually did meet Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, who also later apologised for how she had been treated by safeguarding staff in his diocese.

Later Cardinal Nichols wrote to Rome, asking for Conniffe to be laicised which the Servite Order itself had not done.

In 2019, a letter of qualified apology from Peter Conniffe, who was formerly parish priest of Our Lady of Dolours in Salford, to A711, was made public. In it he wrote that he had “deep regret” over what had happened.

He also asked for forgiveness “for all and any sexual activity towards you which I may have thought consensual, but which has come to be deemed non-consensual and abusive”. 

The letter begins: “I write to acknowledge all that you have stated about my involvement in your life.” 

However, the police decided not to pursue Conniffe through the courts, although A711 received compensation from the Servite Order.

This week A711 said Cardinal Nichols had done the right thing in pursuing the case and said that she did not regret reporting Conniffe.

“I had to pursue it and ask questions, and now we have this result.”

Westminster Diocese has confirmed the laicisation. When the Servite Order was asked for comment, Provincial Colm McGlynn declined to do so.

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