Ealing Abbey investigated by the Holy See - This unprecedented move suggests that concerned lay-people have a friend in the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini

It was revealed yesterday that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the request of the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, ordered an apostolic visitation earlier this year to the troubled Ealing Abbey and its school. The visitation was formally carried out last month. Although many press reports, including the ones filed by the Daily Mail and the Telegraph, seem to suggest that the apostolic visitation is yet to take place, the Catholic News Service reports (here) that its investigations have actually now been concluded. This is the first Vatican ordered inquiry into clerical child abuse in Britain, and will have come as a shock to many who feel that the Catholic Church in England and Wales has a relatively exemplary record when it comes to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

The visitation was conducted by Bishop John Arnold, Auxiliary of the Diocese of Westminster, and Abbot Richard Yeo OSB, President of the English Benedictine Congregation. It is believed that their report has now been written, and will soon be submitted to the CDF. Their findings might remain undisclosed, though, which according to the Guardian (a paper that's never slow in letting its seemingly anti-Catholic bias get the better of it) is something that has already caused concerns amongst victims of clerical child abuse.

Many might also question why the apostolic visitors were chosen from the Diocese and Benedictine Congregation with the closest links to Ealing Abbey. For the sake of at least seeming to be objective, the Holy See might have been better advised to send a bishop and abbot from unrelated ecclesiastical institutions as its official investigators. Having said that, both men do seem to be already acquainted with the scandalous problems at Ealing Abbey, and are therefore well placed to investigate both the monastery and its school. Both Bishop Arnold and Father Yeo were also members of the Cumberlege Commission, which reported protecting children and vulnerable adults in 2007.

The Times (pay-wall), which carried a report about the visitation on its front page yesterday, raised important concerns about Ealing Abbey last year, when it investigated the history of child sexual, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of monks and teachers at the monastery's prestigious school. It is mainly thanks to the Times, which revealed four decades of abuse by David Pearce, a priest at Ealing Abbey and a former headmaster of St Benedict’s junior school, that police announced a fresh inquiry into three former teachers, two of whom were clerics. Pearce was imprisoned some years ago, whilst the former Abbot of Ealing, Father Laurence Soper, who was last seen at the Benedictine Federation headquarters in Rome, is currently on the run after jumping bail before he could be charged with child abuse offences.

Writing in the Times, David Brown and Sean O’Neill claim that ["t]he Vatican’s intervention will be interpreted as a rebuke to the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, and the Catholic hierarchy in England, which has insisted for years that the Church in Britain has first-rate child protection policies." They also claim that the apostolic visitation, "is ... a clear signal to Ealing Abbey that the inquiry it commissioned, by Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers, must not be the last word on the scandal."

In a related article, the Times also reported yesterday that, "[t]he visitation order came after a meeting in London this year between the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, and Jonathan West, who is campaigning for improving child protection measures at independent schools. Mr West’s son was a pupil at St Benedict’s and his daughter attended St Augustine’s Priory." According to the article, it seems that Jonathan West "is dismayed at Bishop Arnold’s refusal to consider details of offences allegedly committed by eight people linked to the school or abbey or automatically to publish the findings of the investigation." He is also reported to have said, “It seems to me that the visitation has been carefully designed to achieve nothing at all.”

Simon Caldwell at Catholic News Service (see above links) reports that the Pope's press secretary, Father Federico Lombardi SJ, confirmed yesterday that Bishop Arnold was asked to conduct the apostolic visitation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which now has competency for dealing with clerical child abuse investigations throughout the universal Church. Father Lombardi said, "When the final report of the visitation is ready, it will be given to the congregation, which will take the appropriate steps."

In an email sent to Catholic News Service the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said that the purpose of the apostolic visitation was to ensure that the English and Welsh Church's child protection and safeguarding procedures have been followed to the letter. In a statement released yesterday, the Diocese of Westminster explained the nature of the visitation with these words: "An Apostolic Visitation is a meeting with the superiors and members of a religious community. It provides an opportunity to examine community and religious life. An Apostolic Visitation to the Benedictine Community at Ealing Abbey has been conducted by Dom Richard Yeo OSB and Bishop John Arnold who visited and met with the community in September 2011. The effective safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults is a priority for the Catholic church [sic] and Ealing Abbey’s safeguarding policies and procedures formed part of the remit of the Apostolic Visitation."

The horrific child abuse cases linked to Ealing Abbey have highlighted many historic errors and deficiencies both within the Catholic Church in England and Wales' monastic and diocesan structures. They also point to a past system where the hierarchy seems to have been too lenient with clerical criminals, whilst also appearing to be dismissive of the need for justice and compassion towards the victims of abuse. It is hoped, then, that this serious intervention by the Holy See - apostolic visitations are never trivial matters - will help the local Church better appreciate the need to avoid complacency and to abide by its own excellent rules and guidelines regarding the safeguarding of children and others, such as the mentally ill, who might be prone to abuse. The details surrounding last month's  apostolic visitation also point to the fact that lay-people who have serious concerns about apparent injustices within the Catholic Church in England and Wales really do have a powerful friend and ally in our Apostolic Nuncio.

Update 9:10 am: Jonathan West has his own blog (Confessions of a skeptic), and his most recent post gives the full background to the apostolic visitation. In the post, Mr West also highlights some of the frustrations he is still having to deal with - quoting a recent letter from Bishop John Arnold. It is a very interesting, if not depressing, read. This post containing correspondence from last year between Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Jonathan West is also one that those interested in the current visitation should read - it might explain why the Nuncio felt the Holy See should step in to investigate this abbey and its school.