Pope's UK visit prompts increase in sex abuse allegations against church

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Britain last year led to more reports of sexual abuse allegations, finds the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission, the body set up to improve the church's response to abuse claims.

Publicity surrounding the pope's four-day tour, in addition to his statements on the paedophile priest scandal, saw the numbers of abuse allegations rise in 2010 from 20 a year to 63.

The commission, which was established in 2008, said the three-fold jump concerned incidents from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

In its annual report the NCSC also revealed that 37 clergy have been laicised, or dismissed from the clerical state, since 2001. Of these, 23 were diocesan priests and 14 were members of religious orders.

The NCSC said "the overwhelming majority" of the 37 would have criminal convictions but it did not know how many of the convictions dated back to 2001..

The group said the publication highlighted the "many positive developments" in child protection within the Catholic church in England and Wales while acknowledging there was "no room for complacency", especially in the way it dealt with abuse survivors.

"The NCSC is both challenged and heartened by the fact that last year and, in particular, following the pope's visit more people have felt confident enough to come forward to report incidents of abuse in the hope of finding some kind of reconciliation and closure. Overall, however, we are aware that our response [to survivors of abuse] is not always sensitive, timely or appropriate."

The commission's chair, Baroness Scotland, said she was aware there was "still much to do". 

In a foreword she wrote that a point of focus should be development of "a more sensitive and pastoral response to the victims and survivors of abuse".

Richard Scorer, a solicitor with Pannone LLP, who has been involved with several claims against the Catholic church, said that "intense public debate" about the church's failings at the time of the papal visit "undoubtedly emboldened" many victims to break their silence. 

But he warned that it could be years before a full picture emerged.

He said: "It is a well-recognised pattern with child abuse that it produces shame and fear and these often make victims reluctant to disclose often until many years after the event, if at all. 

We simply will not know for some years whether the child protection policies adopted by the Catholic church since reforms in 2001 have been effective or not. Victims of abuse in the last decade may well wait 10, 15, 20 years to disclose."

Scorer accused the church of not taking its legal and moral obligations seriously, citing the lengthy laicisation process and a high-court case in which the church is claiming that it is not responsible for priests' actions.

He added: "Compare how long it takes to defrock paedophile priests with how secular organisations work. We would appalled if a teacher convicted of child abuse had still not been banned from teaching by the General Teaching Council three or five years after the conviction."

The NCSC report comes at a time of renewed criticism about the way the church deals with abuse allegations.

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