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.