A summary of the IICSA investigation of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church

A preliminary hearing into the English Benedictine Congregation took place in the morning of Tuesday 5 June 2018. A copy of the agenda is here and transcript here. 

Summary

This IICSA inquiry concerns the extent of any institutional failures to protect children from sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. The web site states:

“The sexual abuse of children within the Roman Catholic Church has been a matter of national and international concern for many years: the Archbishop of Westminster’s calls for this Inquiry to be established reflected that concern.

This investigation will consider the extent to which the Nolan and Cumberlege reviews of child protection in the Roman Catholic Church improved the Church’s policy and practice. Specific case studies will be identified by the investigation. The first case study will examine the English Benedictine Congregation which has been the subject of numerous allegations of child sexual abuse, including at schools run by the Congregation.

The Inquiry will examine the relationship between Orders such as the Benedictines and the Catholic Church in England and Wales and consider how that relationship impacts on child protection. In this way the Inquiry will evaluate whether any failings identified within the English Benedictine Congregation, and within any other case studies identified as part of the investigation, are representative of wider failings within the Catholic Church”.

On 21 May 2018, the inquiry clarified that the in relation to the English Benedictine Congregation case study, the Inquiry does not intend to hear evidence in relation to Worth Abbey and School.

Further public hearings in this investigation will take place on 12 November 2018 (Archdiocese of Birmingham case study) and 4 February 2019 (Ealing Abbey case study).