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Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, England, is seen in a 2016 file photo. (CNS photo/Mohammed Saber, EPA)
June 20, 2019
Catholic San FranciscoA report by the U.K.'s Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse found more than 130 allegations of child sexual abuse have been made against 78 individuals associated with the Archdiocese of Birmingham since the 1930s. The report found that the true scale of offending is likely to be far higher.
The report examines the church’s response to child sexual abuse by investigating the cases of four priests; James Robinson, Samuel Penney, John Tolkien and an anonymous priest ciphered as RC-F167.
It also considers whether the Nolan and Cumberlege reports, produced in 2001 and 2007 respectively, succeeded in bringing about major reforms.
During six days of public hearings in 2018, the inquiry heard how Robinson, a serial child abuser, was simply moved to another parish after complaints were first made in the 1980s. The police were not informed and there was no internal investigation.
In 1985, he fled to the U.S. after being confronted by a victim who recorded their conversation. However, he continued to receive financial support from the archdiocese for seven years.
In 2003, the BBC broadcast a documentary in which the program makers tracked down Robinson to a caravan park in California and confronted him. The then Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols - now a cardinal and the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.K. - issued a press release complaining about the programme and accusing the BBC of anti-Catholic bias.
This report found Cardinal Nichols’ response was “misplaced and missed the point," by choosing to defend the reputation of the church rather than fully acknowledge the possibility of its shortcomings.
Similarly, when the archdiocese was alerted to allegations against Penney, the vicar general in charge of investigating them instead attempted to help him evade arrest and leave the U.K.
In such cases, the lack of action by the church meant that abusers were free to continue commiting acts of child sexual abuse, the report said.
Most reports to the police or the archdiocese were made from the late 1990s onward, with the majority of allegations relating to incidents that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s.
The ICSA said its report "cannot convey the devastating impact that child sexual abuse can have on the victims and complainants."
One victim, who was sexually abused at Croome Court (a children’s home run by the archdiocese), testified that he was “robbed of that childhood." Another, also sexually abused at Croome Court, said that the abuse made him angry, aggressive and unable to trust people. To this day it gives him “such bad nightmares that I cannot sleep through the night." Another victim of sexual abuse at Croome Court self-harmed from childhood into adulthood and is now diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, requiring lifelong treatment and care.
A "culture of secrecy" prevailed in the archdiocese prior to child protection reforms undertaken by the church in 2001.
"The breach of trust – by a priest, trusted by children and their families – was at the core of many of the accounts we heard and read," the ICSA report said. "There was little if any acknowledgement of the harm that this abuse caused, which still affects victims and complainants today."
Professor Alexis Jay, chair of the inquiry, said:
“I am truly shocked by the scale of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The number of perpetrators and abused children is likely to be far higher than the figures suggest.
“Victims and survivors’ allegations were mostly ignored for years, while perpetrators avoided prosecution. It is clear that the church could have stopped children being abused if it had not been so determined to protect its own reputation," she said. "We hope this report will help ensure that never happens again.”
The Birmingham archdiocese responded in a statement: "We accept that we have failed victims and survivors of abuse and again apologize for the grievous failings we have made in the past. Apologies are just words though, if not backed up by action."