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Rosminians to face ‘loss of faith’ claims in abuse action


Christopher Lamb


MEN SUINGthe Rosminian order for clerical sexual abuse will include losing their faith as part of their compensation claim. Twenty-three men are bringing a civil action against the order for physical and sexual abuse that took place in two preparatory schools run by the Rosminians between the 1950s and 1970s.


Some of those will be saying that they have


lost their faith as a result of abuse and so they should be compensated for this. It is believed to be the first time such a claim will be made in a clerical sexual abuse case. “Some of the men have developed an athe- istic approach to life [resulting from abuse],” said Billhar Uppal of Uppal Taylor solicitors who are representing the victims. “This has led them to be disenfranchised from the faith


of their family and their community.” He added that this has caused them further suf- fering which should be accounted for. Mr Uppal said it was difficult to put any monetary figure on loss of faith, but that it would be part of the claim for general damages of pain and suffering caused by the abuse. Francis Lionnet, one of the men taking part


in the action, said: “I can confirm that some people lost their faith and have had grief from their family.”


Some of those suing the Rosminians have


rejected their faith while some remain prac- tising Catholics. Last week in a documentary on BBC1 for-


mer pupils of Grace Dieu preparatory school, Leicestershire, and St Michael’s, Soni, Tanzania, described abuse they suffered from Rosminian priests Frs Bernard Collins, Douglas Raynor, Bill Jackson and the late Fr Kit Cunningham.


Nichols says parishes must produce vocations


PARISHES NEED to take responsibility for producing vocations to the priesthood, accord- ing to the Archbishop of Westminster, writes Christopher Lamb. “Sometimes parishes get very upset when perhaps we can’t replace their priest,” Archbishop Vincent Nichols said in an inter- view with The Westminster Record to mark the second anniversary since his installation at Westminster. “Then, I have to ask, where do you think priests come from? They come from you. They come from the parishes and the families of the diocese of today, and they are coming, young people are ready for that invitation and that challenge.” This year the archbishop will ordain eight men as priests – including four to the ordi- nariate – and in September 10 will start training for the priesthood at Allen Hall, the


diocesan seminary in Chelsea, west London. The number of seminarians, he said, reflected a “freshness” in the work of promoting voca- tions to the priesthood. “I think the fact that our group of seminar- ians will be joined by 10 more in September, is first of all a tribute to the faith of the life of families and parishes, because that’s where vocations are sensed and nurtured, or missed and discouraged,” he explained. “So every parish ought to be asking itself, how do we nurture in our parish vocations to the priest- hood? In every diocese … there are some parishes that become real seedbeds of voca- tions. Now I think it is a lot to do with the life of prayer within families and within parishes. That’s the invitation to every parish to see itself as a provider of the priests of the future.”


Martin denies symposium snub


THE ARCHBISHOP of Dublin has denied that he was snubbed, after The Tabletreported that he would not be one of the speakers at a major international gathering on clerical sexual abuse in Rome next year, writes Sarah Mac Donald. Despite being a leading


figure in the Church’s response to the crisis which has centred on the Church in Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will not be a major contributor to


34 | THE TABLET | 2 July 2011


the symposium “Towards Healing and Renewal” which is to take place next February at the Gregorian University.


At a press conference in Knock for last weekend’s National Eucharistic Congress, Archbishop Martin told journalists he had not seen the conference programme and did not know any details about it. When asked why he was not one of the speakers he said: “I am not looking for


protagonism in any way.” When asked if any member of the Irish hierarchy would be attending the conference a spokesman for the Irish Bishops’ Conference said: “This information may be available closer to the date.” Archbishop Martin added that he had “no idea” why no prominent Irish prelate had yet to be invited to contribute and suggested that it was a matter for the conference organisers.


FROM THE ARCHIVE 50 YEARS AGO


The painful re-appraisal of the directions – and the cost – of Catholic university edu- cation in the United States, which at present is overshadowed by the more con- troversial issue of federal aid to the schools, could profitably be related to what has been happening in Canada. For many years, and notably at the University of Toronto, the principle of affiliated Catholic colleges, offering courses in theology, phi- losophy and the arts, but sharing with the university common facilities in such expen- sive fields as the natural sciences and libraries, has been accepted as both prac- tical and appropriate to the mixed society […]. It [the University of Western Ontario] is a Catholic university, in the sense that it remains under the control of the Basilian Fathers, but it exists to serve a community of which Catholics amount to perhaps 40 per cent. […] “The complex nature of mod- ern universities,” he [Father Edwin Garvey] has written in Commonweal, “demands new forms of co-operation which can be of great value to both secular and denom- inational colleges, and the system of affiliation is just such a form. If Catholics have recently been self-critical of their con- tribution to the intellectual life of our culture, they might well find this pluralist form of co-operation and avenue of hope in the academic world of the twentieth century.”


The Tablet, 1 July 1961 100 YEARS AGO


The ceremonies and celebrations attending the Coronation have passed and gone, but not without leaving a deep impression upon the minds of the people. King George has been King since the day of his father’s death, but after the great ceremony in Westminster Abbey on Thursday in last week, when sitting in King Edward’s chair he was solemnly invested with the insignia of royalty, his kingship has become a living fact in every mind. […] The Archbishop of Canterbury anointed and crowned both the King and Queen and the sermon was preached by the Archbishop of York, who dealt briefly but effectively with the dignity and duty of service. The Royal Procession from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey and back again was watched by many thou- sands of spectators […] and in the evening the streets were brilliantly and tastefully illuminated. Between Land’s End and John o’ Groats nearly 3,000 beacons and bon- fires were lighted, while those in Ireland were counted by hundreds. […] It was a brilliant spectacle, a fervid and sincere demonstration of loyalty, and yet withal not without a certain homeliness which did but deepen the sincerity of it all. The Tablet, 1 July 1911


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