How the Vatican protected priests involved in child sex abuse
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Reports say Pope Francis asked Cardinal Vincent Nichols to stay on despite a report that criticised the cardinal's leadership.
Catholic church in England and Wales had ignored close to 3,000 cases of child sex abuse. In America, the former Archbishop of Washington D.C sexually abused minors and in France, an ambassador of the Vatican molested four men.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales is being accused of hiding paedophile priests. The United Kingdom conducted an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
The report details are shocking. The inquiry looked into complaints from 1970 to 2015. In this period, the church received more than three thousand complaints. The complaints were against more than 900 individuals connected to the church with more than 1,750 victims and complainants involved.
The church brushed all the complaints under the carpet. In fact, it covered up the entire scandal. When someone complained against a priest, they were moved to another parish without any supervision and any probe or corrective measures.
Some continued to prey on children and in all these years, the Archbishop did nothing including Cardinal Vincent Nichols. He inherited the problem from his predecessors and he did nothing to fix it. Instead, he became a part of it and tried to suppress new cases.
The inquiry found that since 2016 more than 100 allegations of abuse have been reported.
Pope Francis asked Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales to stay in his post despite a damning report that criticised his leadership and concluded that the church repeatedly prioritised its reputation over the welfare of child sex abuse victims.
Reports say Pope Francis asked Cardinal Vincent Nichols to stay on despite a report that criticised the cardinal's leadership. The findings were clear as water. The church was prioritising its reputation over protecting children and the Pope looked the other way. Worse, it is still not a one-off case.
The same story repeats in different countries with different priests.