Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, said the “optics are difficult to understand… for the man in the street” but said the Holy See was following diplomatic procedures.
Brian Altman QC, counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said the Holy See had not provided information about the delays in the laicisation – or defrocking – of some paedophile priests.
He cited the example of James Robinson, a West Midlands-based priest who was convicted in 2010 of 21 child sex offences – the laicisation documents were sent to Rome in 2010 and again in 2015 but it was only finalised in February last year.
Mr Altman said the inquiry has been told that the Holy See considers “the domestic laws and internal proceedings of a foreign, sovereign entity are not the proper object for a British inquiry”.
He asked the cardinal whether he agreed the apparent delays were a “matter of legitimate concern”, and the witness said he did, adding he thought mistakes were made in the original defrocking application.
Cardinal Nichols said: “Beyond that, I cannot go very far, I am not a diplomat and I do not understand the niceties of international law in these things.
“I was given the impression a very focused request could receive a reply but it had to be not a generalised request but a particularly focused request.”
Mr Altman asked whether that would appear…
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