Catholic Church abuse: Cardinal Vincent Nichols criticised over leadership

The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has, at times, shown he cares more about the impact of abuse on the Church's reputation than on the victims, a report says.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse criticised the leadership of Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and the Vatican.

The cardinal said the church was "deeply sorry this happened".

He told the BBC he had offered to resign but been told to stay by Rome.

The cardinal said he accepted the findings of the report and he wanted to "assure everyone we are here to learn and improve".

The report, the latest in a series of publications from the IICSA, said that child sexual abuse was "far from a solely historical issue", adding that more than 100 allegations of abuse had been reported each year since 2016.

Between 1970 and 2015, the Church received more than 3,000 complaints of child sexual abuse against more than 900 individuals connected to the Church, the inquiry found.

Those complaints involved more than 1,750 victims and complainants, but the report said the true scale of abuse was much higher and would likely never be known.

The inquiry said the Catholic Church's "explicit moral purpose has been betrayed by those who sexually abused children, and by those who turned a blind eye and failed to take action against perpetrators".

It said the cardinal, who apologised for the Church's actions when he gave evidence, "did not always exercise the leadership expected of a senior member of the Church, at times preferring to protect the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales and in Rome".

It added that Cardinal Nichols had shown "no acknowledgement of any personal responsibility to lead or influence change".

"Nor did he demonstrate compassion towards victims in the recent cases which we examined," it said.

The report said that two previous inquiries into abuse in the Church, by Lord Nolan in 2001 and Lady Cumberlege in 2007, had brought change and improvements, but their recommendations had been implemented too slowly and not in full.

It highlighted that in 2016, internal correspondence between members of the Diocese of Westminster's safeguarding commission described a victim of sexual abuse as "manipulative" and "needy".

The report states: "Real and lasting changes to attitudes have some way to go if the Roman Catholic Church is to shake off the failures of the past."

One of the "repeated failures" highlighted in IICSA report was the case of Father James Robinson, a serial paedophile, who was moved to another parish within the Archdiocese of Birmingham after complaints were first made in the 1980s.

He later fled to the US but was extradited back to the UK where he was convicted in 2010 of 21 sexual offences against four boys and jailed for 21 years.

The inquiry also criticised the Vatican, describing its actions as in "direct contrast with Pope Francis's public statement on child sexual abuse".

In 2019, the Pope called for "concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church".

The Holy See did not provide a statement to the inquiry and the ambassador at the time refused to give evidence.

One abuse survivor said it was bad enough to have been abused but "to have it dismissed and covered up just takes even more of a toll on you".

Another survivor, who gave evidence to the inquiry, said "thousands of pounds have been spent by the Diocese of Westminster in employing lawyers to keep me at arm's length" as they continued to make their case.

They added: "The church needs a seismic shift in culture, especially at the top. If there is any hope at all of real change it will require a relinquishing of power, and a will to treat survivors as human beings."

Cardinal Nichols said he had offered to resign upon turning 75 this month, this was not in relation to the abuse or report but a requirement of church law.

He added: "The things in this report are in the public sphere, and I'm sure they've been taken into account, but the response I've got is very unambiguous. It is to stay, and stay I will."

Responding to the report, Cardinal Nichols said: "I'm not here to defend myself... I am here to say we accept this report, we are grateful to IICSA for bringing the light and giving public space to those who have been abused, we are deeply sorry this happened."

He added: "Today is more about me saying again, on behalf of everybody in the Catholic Church, how deeply, deeply regretful and sorry I am that anybody suffered, and that so many suffered is a terrible shame with which I must live and from which I must learn."