former schools inspector, voiced concerns about child protection. Even if they had, however, the trustees of Ealing could have lawfully ignored any concerns. Lord Carlile proposes that, in common with


most independent schools, a new educational charity be formed to run St Benedict’s, separate from the charitable trust for the abbey. The school would be run by a board of governors made up of teachers, the abbot, a student rep- resentative, parents and independent individuals. He insists that there should always be a lay (non-monastic) majority on the board and the chairman of governors should not be the abbot or any other monk. The creation of the new educational trust


would also make it impossible for the com- munity to shut down the school although the location of St Benedict’s, whose existing site is owned by the abbey, could be moved. These recommendations will be watched closely by two other Benedictine monasteries which run independent schools: Downside Abbey, in Somerset, and Ampleforth Abbey, North Yorkshire. Both have a similar governance structure to Ealing. In his report Lord Carlile writes: “The ISI


[Independent Schools Inspectorate] and Ofsted have been taking a close interest in Benedictine schools, and in particular have looked at governance and reporting issues at St Benedict’s sister school Downside.” Like Ealing, the trustees of Downside – all monks – have overall control of the school and have recently been ordered to draw up new child- protection policies. Their governance was also criticised in recent inspection reports. In the case of Ampleforth, a separate trust has been created to run its educational activ- ities – Ampleforth College, Ampleforth St Martin’s and St Benet’s Hall, Oxford – although the trustees are all monks and members of the abbot’s council. There is no governing body for Ampleforth College, rather


absence was that he had actually disappeared eight months ago. Indeed, so convinced is the Benedictine Primate, Notker Wolf, that Laurence Soper has gone for good, that his Sant’Anselmo room has been cleared of the belongings he left behind, and they have been shipped back to Ealing. Soper, aged 68 (not 81 as the national press keeps claiming), was employed at Sant’Anselmo as its bursar. He spent con- siderable time unravelling the monastery’s complicated finances and the many-layered ownership of the land on which the building sits on the Aventine Hill. It was not the first time that Soper had been involved with money: after being educated at St Benedict’s, Ealing, and Blackfriars, Oxford, he briefly went into banking, until he entered the novi- tiate back in Ealing at the age of 22. As well as spending time teaching at his old school, being a chaplain down the road at Harrow, and nine years as Abbot of Ealing, Soper was also its bursar for 16 years. But Soper’s involvement with money does not end there. For in Rome, not only was he


an “Abbot’s Advisory Committee” for the school. The only Benedictine foundation which


has a different structure is Worth School, in West Sussex, where separate charitable trusts exist for the school and for the monastery. Lord Carlile cites Worth as “preferable to the single charity system at Ealing” although he says it is not a suitable model for St Benedict’s


been done by the English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) to review the governance models of monasteries. He points out that Abbot Richard Yeo, the abbot president of the EBC, had been a member of the Cumberlege Commission, which was careful to recommend structures to minimise the risk of abuse. Abbot Yeo is also one of the apostolic visitors appointed by the Holy See to investigate the abbey. “To objective observers it will be a disappointment that the governance of Ealing Abbey, St Benedict’s School and other related schools were not subjected to a governance review within a short time,” the report states.


At the press conference to launch his report


Lord (Alexander) Carlile of Berriew, whose report into safeguarding at St Benedict’s, Ealing, criticised the school’s ‘lengthy and culpable failure’ to deal with issues that put children at risk. Photo: PA


after all that has happened. Lord Carlile’s pro- posals for Ealing would create more separation between the school and the monastery. At Worth, the school is managed by a board of governors appointed by the abbot with him as president alongside five lay members, three monks not working in the school and the chairman of the finance and general-purposes committee. The monk trustees of Worth Abbey have the power to dismiss governors, although according to Lord Carlile “this power is more theoretical than real, given the poten- tial for pressure by parents, the statutory agencies and others”. Lord Carlile is clear that more should have


bursar of Sant’Anselmo and treasurer of the worldwide Benedictine Confederation, but, say his friends, he also worked at the Vatican Bank. Added to that, he had inherited money from his parents, Alan and Anne, who both died in the last few years. They were both only children, as was their son: friends in Rome are speculating that this means that the absent Soper has access to substantial inherited funds. There is other speculation in Rome, some of it verging towards wilder conspiracy theories: that Soper has cleared out his personal account at the Vatican Bank; that he is still in Rome, protected by bank officials, because he has lots of inside information about the Church; that he was spotted in the bank earlier this summer, months after he left Sant’Anselmo. In Ealing, some monks and parishioners


have been wondering whether Soper’s apparent disappearance means that he is dead. In Rome, his friends, distressed at the allegations against him, as well as his disap- pearance and complete silence, cling to the


on Wednesday, Lord Carlile called on other Benedictine communities to reform: “I would suggest to them that it might be a very good idea to introduce a new structure, very similar to that which I have recommended at St Benedict’s.” The Carlile report is not, however, entirely condemnatory. After ISI inspections and Charity Commission inquiries, the school now has an acceptable safeguarding policy, and if those responsible adopt the advice of his report, “St Benedict’s students will be as well safeguarded as anywhere else in the country, without losing the Benedictine connection and ethos,” Lord Carlile said. But the problems at Ealing Abbey have highlighted the dangers of any complacency when it comes to child protection. Lord Carlile points back to the original Nolan report which “insisted on a national policy, pointing out that safeguarding is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain”. So the Church in England and Wales cannot claim to be ahead of other countries in dealing with abuse until it fixes the weaker links, even if these are reli- gious communities which have a degree of autonomy from the dioceses. As St Paul says: “If one member suffers, all suffer with it.”


fact that he was always self-sufficient. Indeed, he once told a companion that “All you need to get by anywhere in the world is to know the right words to ask: a beer, please; where’s the toilet? and have you a room for the night?” So the chances are that he is still alive. But where? In recent years, he fre- quently took himself off on sudden short holidays to Morocco, Tunisia, Albania and Montenegro. Could he have gone there? Back in London, the police are likely soon to issue a European arrest warrant for Soper. His belongings have been returned. They include his abbatial mitre and abbatial cross. The cross has an intriguing history: it once belonged to the actor Alec Guinness, a Catholic convert who attended Ealing Abbey and gave it to the monastery. Laurence Soper used to recollect a time when he watched Guinness’ film The Cardinal with Cardinal Basil Hume, who, he said, put the video on hold and said: “Yes, that’s definitely your cross.” Little could Hume have guessed that his friend’s life would become as strange as any movie fiction.


12 November 2011 | THE TABLET | 7


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