THE Roman Catholic archbishop who heads the Church’s new child protection unit has welcomed as a “positive thing” the disclosure that nearly 150 cases of sexual and physical abuse have been reported to the Church in 12 months.

The figure, which includes complaints against clergy and laity in the Church, and takes historic as well as current inquiries into account, was published yesterday in the first report of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.

The Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, said that he did not know whether the figures represented an improvement or a worsening of the level of child abuse in the Catholic Church.

“To have an increasing number of reports is a positive thing for two reasons,” he said. “It means people have a growing confidence that they can say what has happened to them. Also it gives us a chance to do something about it because the whole scandal of abuse cannot be stopped unless we have the information.”

The Church declined to say how many of the 132 reports of sex abuse and 16 reports of physical abuse were currently being investigated by police. The figures were compiled from “case information” given to the child protection office by the 22 Catholic dioceses in England and Wales.

Over the 12 months to December 2002, the dioceses received 148 reports of abuse requiring action by the Church, some concerning abuse committed many years ago. The report says the figures need to be treated with caution because they include reports of “both clear allegations of abuse and lower levels of concern which would not require referral to child protection agencies”. They also include reports of current and past allegations. The report admits: “It is recognised that these figures are of limited value at this stage.”

Archbishop Nichols, chairman of the child protection office, said he felt “torn” by the figures and admitted they made him feel “very uncomfortable” but insisted the Church was changing its practice.

The office was set up as one of the Church’s responses to the inquiry into sex abuse in the Church by Lord Nolan. Archbishop Nichols said that the work to implement all the recommendations made by Lord Nolan represented a “sea change” in many of the habits and procedures in every one of the Church’s parishes, youth groups, voluntary associations and care institutions.

In the introduction to the report he says: “The determination of the Catholic community to overcome the tragedy of the abuse of children, especially within its own life, is clear for all to see.”

The report outlined “substantial progress” in implementing child protection policies within the Church. Ninety per cent of the 2,663 parishes in England and Wales have appointed child protection representatives and more than 200 training sessions have taken place in dioceses, the report said.

Church officials said future reports would be more comprehensive and would include a proper breakdown of the figures between dioceses and also give an indication of how many current cases of abuse were being investigated by police.

Evangelical leaders snub gay Christians

Leaders of the evangelical wing of the Church of England yesterday took the first steps towards schism by officially downgrading their relationships with supporters of homosexual ordinations and same-sex blessings (Ruth Gledhill writes). The councils of Reform, the Church Society and the Fellowship of Word and Spirit, three of the most influential evangelical organisations in England, said they were in “impaired communion” with any Anglican bishop who fails to uphold the traditional line on homosexuality. This means they will not grant full recognition to Canon Gene Robinson, the gay bishop-elect of New Hampshire, to the bishops who elected him there nor to the Right Rev Michael Ingham, whose diocese of New Westminster in Canada has authorised a rite for same-sex blessings. Provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion are expected to make similar declarations after Canon Robinson’s ordination as bishop on Sunday.

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