The words Cardinal Vincent Nichols - Catholic Archbishop of Westminster - at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

About the extent of abuse committed by clergy - and the slow progress in weeding out - and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

It's about 20 years since the Vatican admitted the problem - after previously denying it existed - but very little has happened in the interim.

Cardinal Nichols - just back from the Vatican, where he attended a top ranking meeting on abuse - also said the following.

'The Catholic community has struggled to cope with the presence of evil in its members'

Strong and unprecedented words from a Cardinal - hopefully a prelude to the urgent action required from Rome.

and remember that Cardinal George Pell began the world's first organised compensation system called The Melbourne Response which said victims or claimants could make their claim and report also to police but did not have to to have their claim accepted.

Now seized upon by critics as a plot to cover up his own alleged abuse..despite his convictions for actions said to have happened long after he began the Melbourne response and oddly out of all the Catholics convicted or charged..only having one incident and not dozens like the priests who said it was "like being in a candy store"

Yes, GP instigated The Melbourne Response - which provided capped ex-gratia payments to child abuse victims.

About 350 claims (I believe) were made - and the independent adjudicator authorised payments in 97% of the cases.

Interestingly and significantly - these payments, which were made by the Catholic church, were on the strict basis:-


that there was no admission/acceptance of any wrongdoing or guilt, by clergy or the church


Some said that the payments were for silence - just like similar schemes which had been run in the Dioceses of Boston and Washington.