PASTORAL LETTER

 OF THE

 ARCHBISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM

 THE MOST REVEREND VINCENT NICHOLS

 ON

 THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN

IN THE LIGHT OF THE REPORT OF LORD NOLAN'S INDEPENDENT REVIEW COMMITTEE

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ,

 In the readings at Mass last Sunday we were invited to look closely at the reality of sin and its consequences. We heard of the fate of the house not built on the rock of God’s Word. We were faced with the stark choice: blessing or curse.

 This Sunday we are led to consider the same drama of human freedom from a different perspective. Whereas last week the focus was on our choice, this week the focus is more on God’s choice, at least to begin with.

 Confronted with our waywardness, God says:

      ‘What am I to do with you, Ephraim?

        What am I to do with you, Judah?

        This love of yours is like a morning cloud,

        Like the dew that quickly disappears.’ (Hosea 6.4)

And the answer comes in the Gospel, in the clarion call of Christ:

        ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick…

Indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’ (Mt  9.12-13)

 From both readings, then, we know why we are here, gathered together in Church. We are here because we acknowledge how fickle our love for God can be; we know our need of God’s love and mercy; we know our sinfulness. We come to hear and cherish those words of the Lord. How right it is that, as sinners, we are here to receive his love and forgiveness so that we may continue our journey through life refreshed and strengthened by this Eucharist, this thanksgiving.

 In recent times we have had to come to terms with one particular form of sinfulness. Gradually, painfully we have become more aware of the vulnerability of children in our society and of the degree to which some are abused, physically, emotionally or sexually. This abuse can occur in many circumstances, as we now well know. We have become more familiar with its presence and its distressing characteristics and consequences.

 Over the last twelve months the Catholic Church in England and Wales has made renewed efforts to learn, from leading professionals, what can be done to counteract this evil, and to offer safety to children in our care. This has been important as, much to everyone’s distress and anguish, abuse has taken place even within the context of the life of our own Church. Then its sinfulness is particularly blatant. So too is the great damage it causes: to those who have been abused, to their families, to parish communities, to our priests and to the good name of the Church in this country.  The small number of cases in our Diocese have brought sadness to the hearts of many people.

 I write this letter to you today to let you know that shortly every parish will receive a copy of the Diocesan policy on the protection of children in every aspect of our life in the Church. This policy has been fashioned carefully. It incorporates all the recommendations given to us by the Independent Committee of Enquiry into these matters, chaired by Lord Nolan.

 The challenge of Lord Nolan’s Report, and our own policy, is that we become a community in which the very best care of children is to be found. That is certainly our wish and has long been our intention, as our tradition of schools and child-care shows. The Diocesan policy will help us to take every possible step to ensure that we create a safe environment for our children. It is to be implemented and followed in every parish.

 In order to help this implementation, the Archdiocese has recently appointed a full-time Child Protection Officer. Her name is Mrs Carmel Knowles. She has already started her task of helping parishes to develop the correct attitudes and procedures to the care of children and other vulnerable people in our midst. Her work, and the policies now being put into place, will help us all to be confident in the care we offer to people, in our customary warm and sensitive manner. There is nothing here for us to fear. At first the task looks daunting. But when all is in place, the measures will  hardly be noticeable, but everyone safer.

I also believe that in following the requirements of this policy we shall all learn a good deal more about the nature and consequences of child abuse. That will enable us to respond more sensitively and with deeper compassion to those who have a painful story to tell.

But there is a wider context in which we must consider these matters.  We live in a society which glories in ‘freedom of choice’, without any reference to agreed standards of right and wrong. In fact, some will say that in sexual behaviour anything goes as long as those involved give their consent. Sexual experimentation and self-gratification are mistakenly encouraged, even among the young. In our world today there is much confusion about what is really best for us in our relationships, and sexual relationships in particular.

But Christ is our rock, our sure guide. We build our lives on Him. He gives us the truth about ourselves and how we are to live. When we choose to follow His way we choose true and lasting freedom. When we follow Christ we recognise that in our relationships, intimacy and faithfulness always go together. This is especially true of sexual intimacy, the most profound form of self-giving between two people. Sexual loving, then, should always be an expression of faithful love and of openness to new life. These, of course, are at the heart of marriage, which is where sexual loving truly belongs.

As a Church let us, more than ever, proclaim the high calling of marriage. Such high standards are needed today. So too is compassion for those who strive for those standards yet find them elusive or beyond their grasp.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus is sitting with tax collectors and sinners. In his words and in his actions he has one clear message to give us: ‘As sinners we are welcome in his presence.’ He, alone, does not reject us, no matter what burdens we bear, whether they be of harm done to us, or hurt we have caused to others. He is the one physician, the one counsellor, who can ease our burden and restore us to health. To walk in his way is to take the path of life. But it is a path which is often demanding, especially when we have seen, or touched, the face of evil or failure.

As we come to know the love that Christ offers to us, so too, step by step, we come to know the freedom of heart that he alone can give. Then we will find ourselves filled with a surprising and rare gift: the gift of mercy for others who are marked with the wounds of sin.

Lord Jesus, we seek to walk in your ways.

Help us to remain faithful to your teaching.

Guide us in our care and love for one another

So that in our midst all may know your loving kindness

and your unfailing mercy. Amen.

EVincent Nichols

Archbishop of Birmingham

Given at Birmingham on the 29 May 2002

and appointed to be read in all Churches and Chapels

of the Diocese on the 9 June 2002, Tenth Sunday of the Year