LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Times
November 21, 2020
By Peter MacDiarmid
An independent inquiry has criticised the Catholic leader’s handling of sexual allegations. Those who have suffered for years say he must go
In October 2016 a woman approached the Catholic Church to report the sexual abuse and rape she had suffered at the hands of a priest from the age of 15.
She knew it would take all her strength to relive what had happened. What she did not expect was to be “retraumatised” by the church.
Safeguarding officers for the diocese of Westminster, which handled her case, described the woman, now in her fifties, as “needy” and “manipulative” in internal emails.
She pleaded with Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the diocese and the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, to help her with her case. She was ignored. Requests for meetings fell on deaf ears for months. After submitting a formal request…
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