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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-48703484

Birmingham Archdiocese 'ignored abuse to protect reputation'

Father John TolkienImage copyrightBPM MEDIA Image captionBirmingham Archdiocese allegedly knew about abuse by Father John Tolkien in the 1950s

Children could have been saved from abuse if the Church had focused less on its reputation, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has said.

More than 130 allegations of abuse were made against 78 individuals associated with Birmingham's Catholic Church.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols - the city's archbishop between 2000 and 2009 - was accused of focusing on reputation rather than the impact of abuse.

He denied a cover-up, but allegations were found to have been "ignored".

Cardinal Vincent Nichols Image captionThe report said Cardinal Vincent Nichols was too focused on reputation

"I am truly shocked by the scale of sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Birmingham," the inquiry's chair, Professor Alexis Jay, said.

The report concluded that "children could have been saved from abuse if the Church had not been so determined to protect its reputation".

Father John Tolkien - son of novelist JRR Tolkien - was said to have admitted abusing boys in Sparkhill, Birmingham, in the 1950s.

The archdiocese was apparently aware of the alleged abuse but did not report it until decades later.

Former boy scout Christopher Carrie, from Solihull, was given £15,000 in compensation in 2003 after he sued the archdiocese.

Father John TolkienImage copyrightBPM MEDIA Image captionFather Tolkien was deemed too ill to be charged after an investigation into abuse in the Church

At the time, the Crown Prosecution Service said Father Tolkien was too ill to be charged, and he died later that year.

Cardinal Nichols - now the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales - appeared before the inquiry in December. He was asked if he had suppressed a note which suggested Father Tolkien admitted an allegation of abuse in 1968 and was sent for treatment.

The note was made by Archbishop of Birmingham Maurice Couve de Murville as part of a 1993 investigation but no action was taken either in 1968 or in 1993.

This "lack of action by the Church meant that abusers were free to continue committing acts of child sexual abuse," the inquiry found.

St Chad's Cathedral, BirminghamImage copyrightGOOGLE Image captionThe inquiry looked at allegations in Birmingham's Roman Catholic Archdiocese

As well as Father Tolkien, the investigation focused on three other priests: James Robinson, Samuel Penney, and one who remains anonymous.

Father Robinson, described as a serial child abuser, was moved from parish to parish after complaints were first made against him in the 1980s. The police were never informed and there was no internal, church-led investigation. 

He fled the UK in 1985 - later to be tracked down by the BBC at a caravan park in California - after being confronted by a victim.

Despite multiple allegations against him, he continued to receive financial support from the Archdiocese for seven years.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols (L) shakes hands with Pope Francis.Image copyrightCATHOLIC CHURCH HANDOUT Image captionCardinal Vincent Nichols (L) shakes hands with Pope Francis

Robinson was found guilty in 2010 of 21 child sex abuse offences against four boys - some 40 years after complaints were first made to the church in the 1970s and 80s.

When the Archdiocese was alerted to allegations against Father Penney, the Vicar General - who was charged with investigating - attempted to help him evade arrest and leave the UK.

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Analysis

By Martin Bashir, BBC religion editor

Once again, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has shone light upon dark areas of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

This report describes an institution where the safeguarding of children was relegated to second, even third place, with the Church much more concerned about reputation management.

It also appears that Church leaders preferred secrecy over transparency, assisting some abusive priests to leave the country and others to move from parish to parish.

The criticisms of Cardinal Vincent Nichols are particularly scathing. The clear implication of the report is that his focus on reputation management - rather than the welfare of children - meant that abusers were allowed to continue victimising children.

And while it would be tempting to imagine that these offences are all in the past, the report concludes that "the Archdiocese is still falling short in its child safeguarding arrangements".

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Prof Jay said the number of perpetrators and victims is "likely to be far higher than the figures suggest" and the consequences of the Church's failings "cannot be overstated".

'Failed victims'

The report also concluded that the Birmingham Archdiocese continues to fall short in its child safeguarding arrangements. 

In a statement, the Archdiocese said it accepts it has "failed victims and survivors" and apologised for "the grievous failings we have made in the past".

It said it has "fundamentally changed its practices and processes to ensure an open and compassionate approach to victims and survivors".

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Polish abuse scandal: Victims take on the Catholic Church

By Adam EastonBBC News, Warsaw
Monika, Polish artist Image captionMonika, now 28, has spoken of years of abuse as a teenager at the hands of priests

Marek Mielewczyk was a 13-year-old altar boy when a priest asked him to come to his presbytery. 

"This is where I was abused for the first time," he says.

He is one of several victims, now adults, featured in a documentary about Polish priests who sexually abused children.

Tomasz and Marek Sekielski's film, Don't Tell Anyone, was watched 20 million times in the first week of its digital release – and prompted an unprecedented challenge to Poland's Roman Catholic Church.

More than 90% of Poles identity themselves as Catholics. For many, the Church and its rituals do not just provide spiritual comfort: they are part of a national identity. 

That might explain why Poles have been slow to question the behaviour of some of their own priests, despite sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church in Ireland, the USA and neighbouring Germany.

Monika, 28, did not appear in the film. But she told the BBC about years of abuse during supposed exorcisms by priests around Poland when she was a teenager.

Her parents saw the priests "as heroes, people who were fighting against the devil himself" - but she believes they were manipulated.

You may find some of the details in this story upsetting.

The Catholic Church defended Polish culture, language and identity as the country was ruled by three occupying empires in the 19th Century.

After World War Two, the Church – and Polish Pope John Paul II – gave strength to the democratic Solidarity movement, helping it overthrow communist rule. 

Bishops attend a special mass on the sidelines of a meeting on child sex abuse scandals gathering bishops and a Vatican expert on paedophilia on June 14, 2019 in WalbrzychImage copyrightAFP Image captionPolish bishops last month held a special mass as they considered the repercussions of the scandal

But the documentary has sullied that reputation.

Shortly after the film's release, an opinion poll suggested 67% of Poles regarded the Church's response as inadequate and 87% said its authority had been diminished. 

How Marek challenged the Church

Marek Mielewczyk was abused for five years.

"I didn't know about things like masturbation and touching. I had no idea about homosexual relations. I didn't know that an adult could abuse a child," says Mr Mielewczyk.

"He told me not to tell anyone, not to talk about it at school, and that's what happened."

Marek Mielewczyk Image captionMarek Mielewczyk, 50, now runs a successful business growing garden plants

The abuse continued until one Christmas Eve when he was 18, and he tried to kill himself by taking pills. His parents only discovered what had happened to him after he told a doctor why he had been suicidal.

When the doctor informed the local bishop about the case, he wrote back saying he was aware of the abuse.

Marek, now 50, has identified his abuser as Fr Andrzej Srebrzynski, and the documentary says the priest was subsequently moved from parish to parish for the next 28 years.

He was only removed from the priesthood in 2015. Even then, he was filmed taking part in a religious procession wearing his priestly vestments.

Fr Srebrzynski denies abusing Marek, arguing that it was another priest who molested him. A judge in 2017 ordered him to apologise to his victim, and he is appealing against the ruling.

How damaging for Church?

"There are no words to express our shame," Polish bishops said in a statement issued in the days following the documentary's release - acknowledging they had not done enough to prevent abuse.

Adam Szostkiewicz, a columnist for Polityka weekly, believes there is now a readiness for people to make the bishops responsible for their silence.

"This process will take time, but for me, it's a point of no return for the Church," he said.

"But for some Poles, if they lose the Church, it's like they lose a part of themselves. They prefer to close their eyes," he added.

"They see the Church as their mother, and you cannot say bad things about your mother."

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How the Catholic Church has been forced to face up to abuse

p076cmm8.jpg
 
Media captionThe rebels who changed the Catholic Church in Chile Presentational grey line

'Nobody tried to stop him'

As a teenager growing up in a small town outside Warsaw, Monika – not her real name – was fascinated with black clothes, heavy music and drawing vampires.

Now an art student, she says her years of abuse began when a priest convinced her parents that she was possessed by an evil spirit, and began performing exorcism rites on her.

Soon, she was being taken around the country for so-called treatments by other priests.

InkaPresentational white space

On one occasion, she said she was taken to a tiny basement room where there was a bed with leather straps.

"This priest strapped me to the bed and literally tortured me. He had lay people helping him, and this priest would shove a crucifix down my throat until I started to bleed," she told the BBC.

"He started drowning me on this bed. He would pinch my nose closed and pour water down my throat. Nobody reacted or tried to stop him."

Another priest she describes as a sadist. "He would strangle me and pin me down by lying on top of me. I could feel he was sexually aroused."

She says he would tie her to a church pew or a radiator for so long that she wet herself.

While staying with one of the priests she would sleep in his bed. "He would drink alcohol. He also did things; he was a man with a teenage girl in his bed," she said.

Monika only managed to escape with the help of her friends after they learned of her suffering.

She has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder. She has sought support through the Nie Lekajcie Sie (Have No Fear) foundation which helps abuse victims.

She started legal action but prosecutors dropped her case after a court-appointed psychologist, whom the foundation says has close links to the Catholic Church, suspected she was lying. 

The foundation sought another psychologist's opinion, who found her story credible, and Monika is appealing against the prosecutor's decision. 

How is Poland responding?

The Have No Fear foundation is drafting a citizens' bill to enable victims to file historical claims against priests and to allow for the creation of an independent truth and compensation commission, modelled on those set up in Ireland, Germany and Australia. 

Poland's conservative Law and Justice government is creating a commission, but with members appointed by politicians rather than experts. The party enjoys the support of many priests for its backing of Catholic values.

Henryk Jankowski's statue was pulled down in February 2019, years after an abuse case against him was droppedImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image captionEarlier this year, a statue was pulled down in Gdansk of a priest who was defrocked in 2005

The government commission will investigate professions such as child-care and teaching as well as the Church. 

Marek Mielewczyk, who is now a grandfather, realises the fight for justice will take time, but he's happy it has at least begun.

After watching the documentary, his eldest daughter texted him "Daddy, I love you".

"It was very moving for me. All those years of hard work had been worth it," he said. 

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Archbishop tried to discredit BBC film on church links to abuse

Cardinal Vincent Nichols filed formal complaint over 2003 programme, documents show

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

Wed 24 Jul 2019 16.36 BSTLast modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 20.15 BST

 

 
 

Vincent Nichols  Vincent Nichols said his ‘frustration at the approach of the programme-makers led me not to give sufficient attention to the suffering of the victims’. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The most senior Catholic leader in England and Wales went to extraordinary lengths to try to discredit a BBC documentary on child sexual abuse and its cover-up by the church, the Guardian can disclose.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, publicly accusedthe BBC of bias and malice before the documentary was aired in 2003. Documents seen by the Guardian show he also lobbied the BBC’s director of news, wrote to all priests in his archdiocese urging them not to speak to BBC journalists, and lodged a formal complaint against the programme’s makers.

The BBC’s programme complaints unit (PCU) rejected the complaint, and the BBC governors’ programme complaints committee dismissed his appeal against that decision. Nichols refused to apologise to the programme-makers.

 

Last month the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) criticised Nichols for putting the church’s reputation before the welfare of abuse survivors. In a report, IICSA said Nichols’s response to the BBC programme was “misplaced and missed the point”.

 

The documentary, part of the investigative series Kenyon Confronts on BBC One, included interviews with survivors who claimed the church covered up cases of sexual abuse. It tracked down Father James Robinson, a Catholic priest who fled to the US after being accused of sexual abuse and who received financial support from the Catholic archdiocese of Birmingham for seven years before he was extradited, convicted and jailed.

At the time of the documentary, Nichols was archbishop of Birmingham and chair of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.

At a press conference before the programme was broadcast, Nichols accused the BBC of “using the licence fee to pay unscrupulous reporters trying to recirculate old news and to broadcast programmes that are biased and hostile”.

He added: “That this programme has been allowed to progress this far shows either malice towards the church or a total lack of judgment or of managerial responsibility.” He demanded the BBC justify the renewal of the licence fee.

While the documentary was being made, Nichols wrote to priests in his archdiocese urging them not to speak to BBC reporters working on it. “If you are approached please remember you are not advised to be cooperative. You may, quite properly, refuse to take part in any questioning or interview. This is my advice,” he wrote.

Before broadcast, Nichols wrote to Richard Sambrook, then the BBC’s director of news, saying a re-examination of historic sexual abuse cases was not in the public interest. He claimed reporters had telephoned a priest at 2am, acted discourteously and inconsiderately to a priest who had just undergone major surgery, and “cornered” a priest in a residential care home to question him.

Sambrook told the Guardian: “My recollection of the difficult meeting and correspondence with Cardinal Nichols is that he was entirely focused on trying to discredit the BBC’s journalism in the hope of diverting criticism of the church. Fortunately the BBC’s journalism was sufficiently robust to see off such attempts. He showed little interest in wider questions about uncovering abuse or the welfare of the survivors.”

After the programme was broadcast on 15 October 2003, Nichols lodged a formal complaint with the PCU, claiming BBC reporters used underhand methods to gain access to elderly and infirm priests.

The PCU rejected Nichols’ complaint, saying there were no grounds for his claim that the Kenyon Confronts team behaved inappropriately. It said the investigation was “conducted properly and in line with BBC producers’ guidelines” and there was no evidence of serious breaches of editorial standards.

Some of the 11 sworn witness statements from nuns and priests provided by Nichols to the PCU contradicted his allegations that reporters had not properly identified themselves. Evidence from recordings of some encounters also showed his claims to be false.

Nichols claimed one priest had been left distressed by a visit from two members of the Kenyon Confronts team, who were alleged to be hectoring and intimidating. However, the priest’s statement said the pair were “well-mannered, polite and had respect for my office, although I was glad when I had finished speaking to them. They were not unpleasant or malicious in the way they spoke to me.”

Nichols appealed to the BBC governors’ programme complaints committee against the PCU’s adjudication, and in May 2005 the committee rejected the appeal.

After the decision, Paul Kenyon, the programme’s presenter, and Paul Woolwich, its executive producer, wrote to Nichols saying the archbishop had tarnished the reputation of those who worked on the documentary. “We believe an apology to set the record straight would now be appropriate.” 

Nichols replied: “I see no need for me to offer an apology.”

Last month IICSA said Nichols’ response to the programme should have focused on “recognising the harm caused to the complainants and victims. Instead, [it] led many to think that the church was still more concerned with protecting itself than the protection of children.”

After the report was published, the Tablet, a respected Catholic weekly, said the inquiry’s criticisms raised questions about Nichols’s fitness for office.

In a statement to the Guardian, Nichols apologised for at the time failing to sufficiently acknowledge two positive elements of the programme: giving a platform to abuse survivors and locating Fr Robinson.

He pointed out he had offered to give a live interview to the BBC at the time of the broadcast. Woolwich said it had not been possible to broadcast a live interview immediately after the broadcast of a pre-recorded programme, and Nichols had rejected an offer to appear live on Newsnight the same night or the Today programme the following morning.

Nichols’s statement said: “I was annoyed at the approach of the programme-makers who gave a slanted presentation of the real problems we were seeking to address … I accept that my frustration at the approach of the programme-makers led me not to give sufficient attention to the suffering of the victims of abuse perpetrated by the priest in question, although I had already met with all but one of them.

“A more thorough listening to the experiences of victims and survivors has now become central to the church’s approach and we will continue to adjust our work in safeguarding in light of this victim-centred approach.” 

 
 
Edited by BEARGER
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  • 4 weeks later...

Cardinal George Pell loses appeal against sexual abuse convictions

Cardinal George PellImage copyrightREUTERS Image captionCardinal George Pell is due to remain in jail until at least 2022

Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of sexual abuse, has failed in a legal bid to quash his convictions in Australia.

Pell was jailed for six years in March after being found guilty of abusing two boys in a Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s. He maintains his innocence.

A court of appeal rejected Pell's argument that the verdict was unfair.

The former Vatican treasurer, 78, will now remain in jail until he is eligible for parole in October 2022.

Last December, a jury unanimously convicted Pell of sexually abusing the 13-year-old boys after a mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, and of abusing one of the boys again on another occasion.

Pell challenged the verdict by arguing it was "unreasonable" because there was insufficient evidence for the jury to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt.

The cleric's lawyers said the jury had relied too heavily on the "uncorroborated evidence" of the sole surviving victim. But his appeal was dismissed 2-1 by a panel of three judges in Victoria's Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

"Justice [Chris] Maxwell and I accepted the prosecution's submission that the complainant was a compelling witness, was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth," said Chief Justice Anne Ferguson.

Pell was present for the hearing. 

p0728mrm.jpg
 
Media captionPell called abuse claims against him 'disgraceful rubbish'
 
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