The review, chaired by Lord Nolan, a retired senior judge, made 50 recommendations in its “essentially practical” first report, including a child-protection representative in every Catholic parish, a national database of applicants for the priesthood, and laicization—effective dismissal from the priesthood—in severe cases of child abuse.
Under the recommendations, which also cover lay workers, applicants for church positions would have to give details of any convictions for offences against children and young people, and to agree to a check of police records.
Bishops and religious superiors are urged to carry out risk assessments to determine whether the individuals concerned are a current threat.
The Catholic leader in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, praised the report as “extremely constructive and helpful” and added: “We are committed to ensuring that the Catholic Church becomes the safest of places for children.”
However, some victims of abuse and various media commentators were skeptical of the church’s commitment to resolve an issue in which it has often been accused of protecting its own image rather than dealing with the problem.
The report was issued ahead of a meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, scheduled for April 23 to 27.
Tom Horwood, the bishops’ spokesman, confirmed to ENI that the report would be a main agenda item and that Lord Nolan and members of his committee would be meeting the bishops.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor set up the Nolan Review last year after a series of sex-abuse cases involving Catholic priests. Between 1995 and 1999 in Britain 21 priests were convicted of sexual offences against children. Two others were acquitted, and 79 were involved in police inquiries, but not brought to trial.
The cardinal was recently drawn into the scandal because as a diocesan bishop he had appointed Father Michael Hill to an airport chaplaincy. Murphy-O’Connor had earlier been warned that Hill was an abuser. Hill offended again and was sent to prison.
In another case that caused controversy, Archbishop John Ward of Cardiff approved the ordination of Father Joe Jordan, although Jordan had been rejected by another diocese. Jordan is currently in jail for child sexual abuse.
Introducing his committee’s report on April 17, Lord Nolan said: “Our hope with this first report is that it will help to bring about a culture of vigilance where every single adult member of the [Catholic] Church consciously and actively takes responsibility for creating a safe environment for children and young people. Our recommendations are not a substitute for this, but we hope they will be an impetus towards such an achievement.”
Lord Nolan stressed that the Review on Child Protection in the Catholic Church in England and Wales was truly independent: most of the 10 members are drawn from external organizations and only four members (including Nolan) are Roman Catholics. The members include another judge, a bishop, a psychiatrist and two senior police officers.
The committee so far has met nine times and received more than 150 submissions from both individuals and organizations. Its final report is expected to be published in the middle of this year.
Lord Nolan said: “Our overriding aim has been to create a secure environment for children. Our proposals are meant to improve existing diocesan and national structures and procedures so that parishes are supported in their efforts to protect the children in their care.
“We also want to ensure a consistent and effective approach across the church to allegations of child abuse.”
The Nolan Review builds on guidelines introduced by the church in 1994, with an emphasis on preventing child abuse as well as reacting to it. Among its other recommendations:
- a National Child Protection Unit to be created, which would hold the church’s database on applications for the priesthood and provide a national capability to advise dioceses and religious orders, and to monitor progress
- cautioned or convicted abusers should not hold any position that could put children at risk
- the church should adopt and adapt the 13 principles of the British government’s document Safe From Harm about the management of organizations and the management and training of staff and volunteers
- more pastoral provision to help victims and support parishes … each diocese and every religious order should have a child protection co-ordinator
- allegations should be responded to swiftly when they arise, and risk assessments undertaken.
The report stresses that bishops and religious superiors should no longer have the power to overrule the decision of selection boards about a candidate’s suitability. It acknowledges that the religious practice of confession must remain secret, but suggests that the priest hearing the confession should try to create a situation where the offence is admitted outside the confessional.
Clergy with convictions for sex offences present a special difficulty because, the report states, “most posts to which priests might be appointed are likely to involve some contact with children and young people.” Even so, the report recommends laicization only in “the most serious circumstances,” which it defines as those cases in which an offender has been given a prison term of more than 12 months. It argues that suspension from the exercise of a priest’s ministry is an appropriate penalty for less serious cases of child abuse.
Under the headline “Victims’ Prayers Answered,” the (London) Daily Express newspaper commented: “Abuse of children by Catholic priests has been brushed under the carpet for far too long … But no organization must be above the law. The Catholic Church has belatedly recognized that, and come up with a battle plan to deal with the problem.”
In other newspaper reports, unnamed Vatican officials praised Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s “courageous initiative” in setting up the Nolan Review and suggested it might become a model for reviews elsewhere. The review was “pioneering work in a difficult area.”
However, an unnamed victim abused by Father Eric Taylor, who is now aged 80 and serving a seven-year prison sentence, described the Nolan recommendations as “wishy-washy … A voluntary code by itself will never work. It’s going to be pretty difficult to weed out these people,” the victim said.
The mother of a boy abused by a priest said pedophiles would not be eliminated until the Catholic Church set up a fully independent child protection body. She feared that the proposed National Child Protection Unit would be run by the clergy and be “toothless.”
In the Guardian newspaper, columnist Muriel Gray ridiculed the report, stating “Some highlights include the fabulously original idea … that if an abusing priest has had more than a 12-month sentence passed on him, he should be laicised. (That’s fired to you and me.) … The most unpleasant aspect of the report is the respectful tone it adopts in dealing with the whole mess.”
Copyright © 2001 ENI.
Related Elsewhere
Other media coverage of the report includes:Panel urges Britain’s Catholics to get tough on child abusers — Los Angeles Times (Apr 21, 2001)
Catholics urged to set up protection unit — The Times, London (Apr 18, 2001)
Vatican hails Nolan review as ‘a model’ —The Times (Apr 18, 2001)
Child abuse priests should be defrocked — The Daily Telegraph (Apr 18, 2001)
Crackdown on abuse by priests — The Guardian (Apr 18, 2001)
Child abuse checks are urged for all priests — The Independent (Apr 18, 2001)
Review calls for police check on clergy — The Irish Times (Apr 18, 2001)
U.K. study calls for checks on church — Associated Press (Apr. 17, 2001)
