Rosminians deny abuse cover-up


Christopher Lamb


THE ROSMINIANS have denied that they knew of sexual abuse committed by one of their priests before moving him to another school. A television programme, Abused: Breaking the Silence, shown on BBC1 on Tuesday, and available on iPlayer, says that a complaint of sexual abuse was made against Fr Bernard Collins when he worked at Grace Dieu Manor Preparatory School in Leicestershire, then run by the Rosminian order, between 1954 and 1958. The programme reports that after a complaint was made against Fr Collins by the father of one of the victims, Donald MacFaul, in 1958, the order moved the priest to another of their schools, St Michael’s Soni, in what is now Tanzania. But Fr David Myers, the provincial of the Rosminian order’s Gentili Province, told The Tablet that the decision to move Fr Collins to Africa had nothing to do with the complaint


and had been done simply on the basis of a need for teachers at Soni. He said concerns were not raised about Fr Collins’ behaviour until 1964 when he was barred from admin- istering corporal punishment. The programme, however, broadcasts a


secret recording of Fr Collins – now aged 96 and suspended by the order from active min- istry together with two other priests also implicated – in which he says the order knew about the accusation of abuse in 1958. Fr Collins has admitted to receiving sexual grat- ification from physically punishing boys in a letter of apology to his accusers. He has also admitted to fondling boys, but maintains that this was for “hygiene purposes”. In the documentary, former pupils described the abuse they suffered in the Rosminian-run schools between 1954 and 1974. Twenty-two of them are pursuing a civil action for compensation. On Wednesday, Fr Myers apologised “with- out reservation” on behalf of the order to all those who had been abused, saying: “Such abuse was a grievous breach of trust … I and all my brethren are deeply shocked at what has happened and acknowledge our inade- quate response.” Earlier he denied that he broke off dialogue and stopped visiting victims when he was notified about the claim for com- pensation. He said that he continues to seek reconciliation with pupils who were abused. (See Peter Stanford, page 7.)


FROM THE ARCHIVE 50 YEARS AGO


On the second day of the Committee Stage of the Rating and Valuation Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Iddesleigh made a valiant attempt to help the convents of con- templative nuns, both Catholic and Anglican (there are 60 Catholic and 12 Anglican contemplative convents). A judg- ment of the Law Lords in 1949 ruled that they cannot be classed as charities since the value of intercessory prayer, while it need not be doubted (and Parliament does not doubt it, for it begins its own proceed- ings with prayer), cannot be legally proved. Lord Iddesleigh pointed out various reasons in support of his plea: the example set; the value of prayer; the help that contempla- tives give to religion, shown by the influence of St Thérèse of Lisieux; the number of convents which provide Mass; and the value of the contemplative life when shown, as on television, to the unbelieving world. Lord Hailsham, answering for the Government, after voicing his own strong sympathy, argued that as the law stands these convents are not charities, and to make their exemption mandatory instead of, as it is, at the discretion of local author- ities, might create bad feeling in those very districts where the local authority is now disposed to give the relief it can … The Tablet, 24 June 1961


A Guided Retreat in Jerusalem following the Path of Jesus’ Passion Death and Resurrection


100 YEARS AGO


4-10 June 2012 (Half Term week)


Led by Frs Michael Teader and Martin Fears


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34 | THE TABLET | 25 June 2011


Last Thursday the Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated with the usual solemnity in Rome; in all the basilicas and principal churches there was the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, but in only a few of them did the procession come out into the streets. Such open-air processions are ceas- ing to be carried out [in Italy] … and the reason is explained by what took place last Thursday at Fabriano … The procession started in good order from the church, the bishop carrying the Blessed Sacrament under a rich baldacchino, and little girls dressed in white scattering roses on the street before him. But as the head of the cortège entered into the principal street of the town it was assailed by a gang of anticlerical roughs who endeavoured to snatch the banner of the confraternity from the hands of its bearers … impious and obscene cries filled the air; and then a rush was made by the assailants upon the bishop, who was almost knocked down with the sacred host in his hands, and would certainly have been attacked still more savagely had not the soldiers and police surrounded him and escorted him back into the church. The case is not an isolated one, for it is the avowed purpose of anticlericals to abolish all public mani - festations except their own. The Tablet, 24 June 1911


Journey to Easter Joy


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