Archbishop Nichols and Facebook- the leader of a church that systematically covers up child abuse

 

I read this morning that the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols,  leader of the millions of Roman Catholics in England, seemed to be concerned that young people were in danger using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

He warned that

   "Among young people often a key factor in them committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships.
They throw themselves into a friendship or network of friendships, then it collapses and they're desolate."

There is  not a shred of evidence to support the link between suicide and the use of social networking sites. But there is evidence  he  is the leader of a church in  which large numbers of God's chosen priests have,  until recently,  been involved in physical and sexual child abuse on an industrial scale. And a church that is still in denial about how the leaders of that church deliberately covered  up this abuse. 

I've looked on the Archbishop's website, and can find no reference to his comments following the Ryan Commission Report into the systemic abuse in Ireland by  catholic organisations, The Sisters of Mercy and The Christian Brothers.
In an interview after the publication of the report, he defended the priestly perpetrators of the abuse.

“I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they’d rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn’t forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did.”

Why of earth did  this man  not unequivocally condemn  this abuse? I suspect  it had something to do with his predecessor, Cormac Murphy -O'Connor's cover up of  the child abuse by  Father Michael Hill who was convicted in 1997 of sexual abuse of nine children. A cover up that allowed this man to abuse even more children.  It is clear that Murphy-O'Connor had been aware that concerns had been raised about Hill's behaviour, but had moved him to another parish.