Cardinal pressured bishops to stay quiet on sex abuse case so as not to harm Pope's image
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Summary
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and the President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, is on trial in the United Kingdom for allegedly blocking a public statement in support of a known clergy sex abuse victim.
Transcript
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This is John Henry Weston for LifeSite News. We've got something very rare.
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Documents and testimony directly from bishops and a cardinal all about a case where they are
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refusing to issue a public statement supporting a clergy sexual abuse victim for fear of tarnishing
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the reputation of Pope Francis. This is one show you won't want to miss. Stay tuned.
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Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father and of the Son
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and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Sexual abuse of minors by clerics in the Catholic Church has been
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the cause of untold scandal and has resulted in much animosity toward the Church. However,
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the cover-up of such scandals and especially the mistreatment of victims is something that in
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many cases has upset the public even more. The cover-ups and victim mistreatment are nearly as
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hard to uncover as the atrocious incidents themselves. For the most part, if there are
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paper trails, they are buried deeply in confidential documents. Now, one well-known exception is Cardinal
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Godfrey Daniels, who was caught on tape telling a sexual abuse victim not to go public with the
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incestuous pedophilic abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle, a bishop friend of the Cardinals.
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Recently, however, a hearing of the UK government-established independent inquiry into child
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sexual abuse has elicited testimony from two bishops replete with incriminating evidence
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on Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and the president of the Catholic
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Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Both Portsmouth Bishop Philip Egan and Northampton
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Bishop Peter Doyle testify that Cardinal Nichols cajoled them into refusing to issue a statement in support
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of a known victim of sexual abuse who was being disparaged in Catholic media as non-credible and her
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claims as fantastical. Cardinal Nichols, the bishops testify, warned that any public statement issued by
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the bishops in support of the abuse victim would be used to bolster attacks on Pope Francis. The victim,
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a female, given the code name A-710 during the inquiry so as to conceal her identity, is a known
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clergy abuse victim. Some details of her case came out during the testimony of Vatican whistleblower
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Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, since the Pope intervened directly to halt an investigation into her
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claims of being abused by a cardinal, in addition to the abuse she suffered at the hands of Father Michael
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Hill. But more on that later. Both bishops, Egan and Doyle, testify that communications directors from
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both the bishops' conference, of which Nichols is president, advised them against any public statement
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in favor of the victim, as it would lead to an attack on the Pope. Both also testify under oath
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that Cardinal Nichols himself had later intervened to confirm these fears of his conference's PR agents,
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and that it was the cardinal's intervention that convinced both bishops not to act for the abuse
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victim. In an email Bishop Doyle sent to the victim, subpoenaed by the inquiry, the bishop explained
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why he was now refusing to honor the victim's request that a public statement be issued asserting
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her credibility. Referring to Cardinal Nichols, Bishop Doyle writes, and I quote,
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He said that the statement raised more questions which media agencies like LifeSite News in the States
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would take up in their campaign against the Holy Father. By the end of that conversation,
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I was convinced that a statement would not be the answer for us. Similarly, when asked how he
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understood the media reports on the case of the victim, Bishop Egan states, I saw it as an attempt
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to discredit the Holy Father, actually. Actually, because it was so connected at that time with the Viganot
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affair, it was, in a sense, accusing the Holy Father of manipulating appointments and covering up
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matters. I didn't see it as something directed directly at the victim. I mean, I wouldn't know
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who would want to do that, to be honest. But in another exchange, he says directly that he did,
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in fact, speak to Cardinal Nichols about this situation, and the first thing that Cardinal Nichols
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mentioned was the Viganot affair. Have a look. Remind us, when you spoke to, I think you told us
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you spoke to Cardinal Nichols' invalid lead, did you actually speak to him? I did, yeah. And what
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concerns did he voice? Yeah, he immediately connected it to the Viganot affair. Right. However, when Cardinal
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Nichols himself comes to the stand, he vehemently rejects the assertion that his primary concern was
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trying to protect the reputation of the Pope, and suggests rather that his overriding concern was
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for the victim. The adjudicator of the panel challenges the Cardinal's assertions in this
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regard in a rather fascinating exchange. Have a look.
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Do you accept that when Bishop Doyle is writing to A710 and saying that the focus of the conversation,
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not only with the Bishop's Conference Director of Information and News, was targeted at and directed
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towards a campaign against the Pope, and reiterated by you and confirmed by you in a conversation with
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him subsequently, that he's accurate? That he's? He's been accurate. My conversation with him, as I
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remember, covered substantially the well-being of A710. I said earlier, in answer to your question,
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that that was not my sole concern, it was my substantial concern. And the conversation I had
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with Bishop Doyle was substantially about A710. It did not exclude the evident and obvious fact
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that further publicity would be used to attack Pope Francis. That certainly was part of our
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conversation. Which parts of that conversation Bishop Doyle chooses to report to A710 is for him
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and not for me. Well, let's have a look at what he says. The Cardinal asked what else he could do.
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He knows that neither you nor Angela think much of him. But he wondered whether you'd be willing to
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meet with Baroness O'Lone, the Chair of the Catholic Council, and with him, but with the Baroness taking
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the lead in conversations with you. And then this, I hope that I have represented accurately the
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sequence of events last week as background. And he attached a copy of the proposed statement for
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A710 to see. Now, what's missing in this email from a man who had known A710 for a very long time and
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had offered her pastoral support for many years and had continued to do so is the very thing that
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perhaps she would want to know is that the Cardinal, Cardinal Nichols, was actually more concerned or
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substantially concerned about her welfare rather than a campaign against the Pope. But that's the one
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thing that Bishop Doyle, who would have understood everything that A710 had wanted to hear, that
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is omitted in this email. Don't you find that odd? I can't answer for Bishop Doyle. No, but don't you
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find that odd? I don't know how he relates to her. If you said, if you had said all of this that you
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say to us, Cardinal, during the course of this conversation, don't you find it odd? It's Bishop Doyle's
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choice. I report our conversation accurately. Because on the face of this email, the concern was
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not substantively or otherwise about A710, not only in a conversation between you and Bishop Doyle,
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but also in a conversation with the Bishop's Conference Director of Information and News.
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Consistently throughout this, my substantial concern has been for A710.
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Yeah, I haven't finished my question. I beg your pardon.
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It was all about the campaign against the Pope.
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Substantially throughout this, my substantial concern has been about A710. If I may add,
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Pope Francis is quite capable of looking after himself.
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The Cardinal's own testimony is not only contradicted by the other two bishops who took the stand,
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but also by a woman who worked in the Portsmouth Diocese as an advocate for abuse victims, a
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position called a Safeguarding Commissioner. Angela McGrory, in her testimony to the inquiry,
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was incensed at the mistreatment of the abuse victim, stating clearly that it was in the best
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interest of the victim to go forward with a statement. She wanted this statement, McGrory tells
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the inquiry of the victim. McGrory wrote to the victim saying, quote, you are suffering so much
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and, quote, you are physically declining because of a lack of positive action on the part of the
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church, end quote. Mrs. McGrory said that she could not understand the bishop's decision to
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refuse to issue a statement in support of victim due to a possible threat to Pope Francis's reputation.
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I can't understand the advice that was given. I don't see that that should have prevented the
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church standing up for a victim. Yeah, because aren't we reading here that Cardinal Nichols
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and his director of information and news, Alexander Desforge, weren't they putting the reputation of the
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church before all else? That's what I read as well, and that was why I was very surprised it was
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passed to Westminster when it had been passed to Portsmouth. I wasn't copied into it being passed
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to Portsmouth, so I don't know who shared it with Westminster, but I thought that would have been a
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likely outcome as soon as Westminster. McGrory notes that the victim pleaded for a statement from
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the bishops detailing her credibility. And now we come to the most damning evidence
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against Cardinal Nichols and the non-action of the bishops in question, and that is the words of the
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clergy sexual abuse victim herself. The inquiry reproduces a letter from the victim, dated May of
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this year, with her name redacted of course, and the victim strongly criticized the suggestion that
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a public statement by the bishops apologizing to her and supporting her credibility might further harm
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her. She says, and I quote, the church has allowed public leaks of a very confidential document written
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at its request and entrusted to its care, then left me for seven months to manage the outfall,
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and now its publicity department is saying that to put that right publicly will cause me more harm
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than the church's own neglect, abuse, and the already published derogatory comments in the Catholic
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press in several parts of the world? That feels like an insult. End quote. But what is likely the most
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damning part of this whole affair is that the victim was begging for this public statement from her bishop
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in order to assist her to come back into a right relationship with the church. Without a statement
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attesting to her credibility, she says, she could not finish her therapy and ads, and I quote,
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I will not have any chance of reconnecting with the church or faith. End quote.
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The victim's letter says with regard to Cardinal Nichols, and I quote,
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anyone who knows what I have been put through by Vincent Nichols would not be giving him yet another
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chance to delay my therapeutic journey and disrupt my life, while denying me the one thing I need to
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move on. End quote. That's just unbelievable. But there's more to this story. What indeed are Cardinal
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Nichols and the two bishops trying to conceal about Pope Francis? What is it that has them so concerned
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about an attack on Pope Francis that they'd be willing to refuse to assist a clergy sexual abuse
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victim? Well, it's this. Remember the leaked reports that early in Pope Francis's reign, he personally
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halted a Vatican investigation into sexual abuse perpetrated by a cardinal? That cardinal was
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none other than Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who by all accounts was very instrumental in electing Pope
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Francis. He is the same cardinal who victim A710 alleges abused her. LifeSite confirmed with very high
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ranking sources in the Vatican that while he was celebrating mass for a group of people, Cardinal
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Gerhard Müller, who was at the time the head of the Congregation for Doctrine of Faith, was interrupted
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during mass by his secretary, telling him that the Pope was calling him on the phone. When the cardinal
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asked his secretary if he had informed Pope Francis that he was in the middle of celebrating mass,
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the secretary said that he had told the Pope that, but the Pope insisted on speaking with the cardinal
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immediately nonetheless. So, in this sacristy on the phone, Cardinal Müller was told by the Pope to
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stop the investigation into Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor. Pope Francis's blocking of that
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investigation is not only hearsay. I confirmed it with Cardinal Müller himself. It was in October of
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2018 when I met up with Cardinal Müller at a Napa conference in Washington, D.C. When I asked about
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that incident at the altar, the cardinal told me he was, quote, bound by pontifical secret. But he added
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this, quote, that the Pope's approval is required for investigations of a cardinal. I informed him that
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some of the news reports were suggesting that he had indeed completed the investigation rather than that
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the investigation was interrupted and prevented from continuing. I asked the cardinal if he would at
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least go on the record to indicate that the investigation was stopped rather than completed,
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and he agreed and said yes. The conclusion of this sad tale is this. This abuse victim made her request
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for a hearing into these new allegations of abuse by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor in 2009, a decade
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ago. And despite Cardinal Nichols' testimony that it was investigated, and fairly so, the other two
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bishops disagree and sent a joint letter to the cardinal asking him to reopen her case. In his sworn
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testimony, Cardinal Nichols claims that the congregation for the Doctrine of Faith had closed the case of A710
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in 2011, thus implying that the Pope did not stop it in 2013. However, the other two bishops ask him
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for the reopening of the case, and I quote, I was going to ask Cardinal Vincent, says Egan in his testimony,
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if he would reopen and re-examine this case and see what could be done to help the person concerned,
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end quote. Check out this letter that Bishops Egan and Doyle wrote this joint letter on Egan's letterhead
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to Nichols in May 2019. Egan writes about the witness, quote, I have to say that regardless of the
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remarkable nature and contents of the allegations made, I found nothing to suggest that she was
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not a very genuine and credible witness. In fact, she came over to me as entirely sincere and convincing
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in her statements, end quote. He also admits in that document, quote, with regard to her case,
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the Church's own policies and procedures, which are very clear, have not been followed correctly.
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We are writing, therefore, to request that her case be once again reviewed and an investigation
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undertaken, end quote. Egan testified that Cardinal Nichols didn't even respond to the letter.
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And finally, in the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you that LifeSite News is brought up
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several times in this hearing. Remember, LifeSite News was used by Cardinal Nichols and the PR folks
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as the threat to the bishops that should they speak in defense of the abuse victim, her case would
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surely be used to attack Pope Francis. And there is another exchange that actually couldn't help leave
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me with a smile, and it was this. Cardinal Nichols was asked how he could have missed a key LifeSite
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story on the case. In part of his response, he says this.
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I can only add, I'm not an avid reader of LifeSite News, end quote. To which the questioner follows with,
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no, but presumably you've heard of LifeSite News before. And the Cardinal responds, oh yes.
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I can only add, I'm not an avid reader of LifeSite News. No. But presumably you've heard of LifeSite
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News before. Oh yes. You see, my friends, this business of reporting, of reporting the news,
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of investigating and digging into these cases is arduous work that goes on on weekends and late
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into the night after very long days. I am so very proud of the whole team at LifeSite News that work
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very hard to bring the truth to light. And in this case, especially to Dr. Micah Hickson, without whom
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I could not have done this report. The journalists, videographers, editors, marketers, development,
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the youth work and management, and all at LifeSite do what they can. Yes, they do it for unborn babies.
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Yes, for victims of sexual abuse. Yes, to support families. But first and foremost, for Christ,
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and to bring souls to Christ through His truth. For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston,