No Excuse for Sex Abuse, say Bishops of England and Wales

(22 April 10 - RV) There can be no excuses for the terrible crimes of sex abuse by clergy and the inadequate response by some church leaders. That’s the message contained in a strongly worded statement released on Thursday by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales at the conclusion of a meeting in the northern city of Leeds this week.

The church leaders have been discussing the current crisis and the impact it may have on Pope Benedict’s scheduled visit to the UK this September.

In the statement, the bishops apologise to all who have been abused or felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed by the church.

We spoke to the head of the bishops conference of England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster and to Bill Kilgallon, chair of the national Catholic Safeguarding Commission:


Archbishop Vincent Nichols “We acknowledge the damage that’s been done. We see this as shameful and obviously as a crime, but we want to go beyond that as well and describe the actions of priests and religious who have abused children as profoundly sinful for which we seek sorrow, repentance and reparation. And that’s the main thrust of what we want to say. Together with that we acknowledge that cases have been mishandled in the past and we apologise for the additional hurt that that has caused. And thirdly we express our very fervent recommitment to our work with children to the vulnerable and we express great confidence in the people of the church, the priests, the religious and the laity, that they know how to conduct this generous activity with regard to children and we will continue to do that full of realistic hope”.

Bill Kilgallon Head of National Catholic Safeguarding Commission: "Although we do have good, robust structures and procedures in the country we are not complacent and we must never become so. Because we have learnt from experience that those who wish to abuse, those who seek to abuse will try every avenue and we need a strong commitment from the leadership of the Church and we need the support of the bishops to carry on our work of safeguarding”.