Ten years after Nolan, bishops admit that their response to survivors "has not been adequately developed"

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales meeting in conference at Hinsey Hall, Leeds have said that "Survivors of abuse who come to the Church for pastoral help rightly expect to be welcomed and listened to, and to be understood and supported.", but they have also admit "As Bishops, we acknowledge this has not been adequately developed as an integral part of our safeguarding work." (see http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=19332).

Their admission comes a full ten years after they declared their commitment to the recommendations of the Nolan Report, at their conference in November 2001.

Once again, they seek to present themselves in a positive light, claiming that they "are very grateful to the NCSC and our agency, the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Servicee, for the continuing discussions which have been taking place with a number of survivor organisations." They fail to mention the fact that both the MACSAS and the Lantern Project withdrew from these discussions in October 2011, when they explained that

"The Catholic Church is still not ready to accept responsibility for the actions of its clergy and members of religious congregations who raped and abused thousands of children in this country over the past 50 years. Victims have been reporting this abuse to Church authorities for decades and have yet to receive any compassionate or appropriate response. This failure to hear, to respond and to accept responsibility is a scandal to the Christianity (see http://caaccew.blogspot.com/2011/10/survivors-groups-end-exploratory-talks.html).

Meanwhile, the bishops continue to refer to the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC) as "an independent body", despite the telling fact that all its members, including three bishops, are appointed by them and the Conference of Religious of England and Wales (CoR)!