Cardinal Vincent Gerard Nichols
Photo: Archdiocese of Westminster
Metropolitan Archbishop of Westminster, England
Dioceses/Religious Orders: Archdiocese of Liverpool, Archdiocese of Westminster, Archdiocese of Birmingham
As Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Nichols released a statement in 2010 asserting that “the church is not trying to cover anything up,” saying that the bishops report all allegations to police and social services, regardless of how long ago they took place. Nichols further claimed that every year since 2002, the Catholic Church in England and Wales made public the exact number of allegations made, the number reported to the police, and the outcome of the cases.
In 2003, Nichols publicly accused the BBC of bias and malice before a documentary with interviews from survivors about clergy sexual abuse and cover-up was aired. Nichols lodged a formal complaint against the creators of the documentary and wrote to every priest in his archdiocese directing them not to speak with BBC journalists. The BBC’s director of news, Richard Sambrook, told the Guardian, “My recollection of the difficult meeting and correspondence with Cardinal Nichols is that he was entirely focused on trying to discredit the BBC’s journalism in the hope of diverting criticism of the church. Fortunately the BBC’s journalism was sufficiently robust to see off such attempts. He showed little interest in wider questions about uncovering abuse or the welfare of the survivors.”
In March 2015, the UK’s Home Secretary established the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) which included an investigation of abuse and cover-up in the Roman Catholic Church and the publishing of a report with recommendations. The report’s introduction excoriated Nichols stating that as the figurehead and most senior Catholic leader in England and Wales, Nichols offered “no acknowledgement of any personal responsibility to lead or influence change. Nor did he demonstrate compassion towards victims in the recent cases which we examined.”
In October 2016, a survivor reported being raped and abused by a Servite priest over a period of nine years beginning when she was 15-years-old. The survivor reported feeling optimistic when her case was transferred to the Diocese of Westminster, led by Nichols, but after she inquired about a risk assessment of the abusive priest conducted by the Servites, a representative of the Westminster diocese responded to her with one line, “We confirm there will be no feedback.” The survivor sent several emails to Nichols, and the IICSA reported that he failed to respond to many of them, offering the explanation, “Well I didn’t. I’m sorry.” Internal emails examined by the IICSA revealed the Diocese of Westminster’s internal communication contained many derogatory and dismissive references to the victim that she called “absolutely appalling.”
Email from the Westminster safeguarding office in December 2016
Email from Fr. Jeremy Trood, the Episcopal Vicar for Safeguarding in the Diocese of Westminster in April 2017
In the early 2000s, a survivor reported abuse by a former priest, Michael Hill. In 2008, she further reported that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster from 2000-2009, was involved in the abuse. Murphy-O’Connor denied the allegations, and the police paused the investigation awaiting corroborating evidence. In 2011, after confidential and sensitive documents regarding the allegations were hand-delivered to the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Nichols was asked to provide an opinion, writing that the matter “should now be regarded as completed and closed.” In September 2018, the details of the woman’s confidential account were leaked to the media and reported across Europe, the US, and the UK. (In October 2018, Cardinal Müller told LifeSite News that Pope Francis had intervened to stop the investigation before its completion.)
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth and the woman’s parish priest, now Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, had supported the victim and called on Nichols to apologize to the woman for the leak of her confidential report. Egan and Doyle advocated for a statement including reference to “the consequent damage from comments in the digital media about the survivor, who is known to be a credible witness,” but were advised against it by Nichols. Later when questioned about the leak and what he had done to establish if it had come from the CDF or Vatican police, Nichols replied, “I hesitate to say this, but the leaking of information, gossip, is rife in … across Rome and the Holy See.” It took over a year for Nichols to meet with the victim to apologize privately for the distress the leak had caused.
In 2018, Nichols was criticized for suppressing a 1968 note from former Birmingham Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville about an alleged incident of abuse in the 1950s involving Fr. John Tolkien, son of novelist J.R.R. Tolkien while Archbishop of Birmingham from 2000-2009. A former boy scout who reported the abuse had received compensation in a settlement with the archdiocese in 2003. When questioned about the allegations that he did not disclose the note’s existence to the complainant, Nichols replied, “In the context of the claim and the discussions with the solicitors, my priority was to get that settled and when that was settled I simply didn't give the matter any further thought.” Though there were at least six individuals who reported abuse by Tolkien, he was never prosecuted.
Cardinal Nichols told the BBC he had offered to resign on upon turning 75, but his resignation was rejected by Pope Francis.