Archbishop’s praise for clergy angers victims

VICTIMS of child abuse in Ireland’s State and church-run institutions have hit out at the new leader of Catholics in England and Wales for praising the courage of clergy who came clean.

The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, who was formally installed at a ceremony in London, said a harrowing catalogue of sexual, physical and emotional torture uncovered in a nine-year inquiry should not be allowed to overshadow the good work of priests and nuns.

He also angered victims by calling for abusers to be charged when that was not possible because the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was founded on the basis of immunity.