The Right Reverend Declan Ronan Lang, 9th Bishop of Clifton.
Picture credit: http://www.cliftondiocese.com/
25 April 2010
Dear Bishop Lang
I have read with great interest the statement on child abuse issued by the Bishops of England and Wales on 22 April 2010.
I was inspired recently to write to Archbishop Nichols over Easter about the abuse which I suffered and witnessed at the hands of some brutal Christian Brothers while at Prior Park Preparatory School in the 1950s. My letter to Archbishop Nichols is attached, as is his sympathetic reply.
I am writing to you, partly because I have not as yet heard from the Safeguarding Officer mentioned by the Archbishop, and also because Cricklade lies within your diocese.
I noted particularly the sentences in the above Bishops' statement: "In our dioceses we will continue to make every effort, working with our safeguarding commissions, to identify any further steps we can take, especially concerning the care of those who have suffered abuse, including anyone yet to come forward with their account of their painful and wounded past. We are committed to continuing the work of safeguarding, and are determined to maintain openness and transparency, in close cooperation with the statutory authorities in our countries."
Since writing to Archbishop Nichols I have been investigating in greater depth some of the allegations against Christian Brothers at UK schools. I was dismayed to find even worse accounts than my own on sites such as http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/ As for the Archbishop's own former school at St Mary's College, Crosby, there is plenty of material at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110624368948881 to show that some of the Christian Brothers there were as brutal as Cricklade's.
I was brought up in a deeply Catholic family. My great-uncle Sir Martin Melvin was well-known in Catholic circles in the 1930s as chairman of the Universe newspaper, and was a Knight of St Gregory. My father's family was related by marriage to Maisie Ward, the Catholic writer and publisher. You can imagine that the Christian Brothers were a most negative factor as far as developing my Catholic faith was concerned. There were obviously many decent and kindly men among them, but the brutal and twisted ones should not have been allowed to come in contact with children, and the others, if they had had any moral character at all, should have voiced their concerns to the diocesan authorities.
I would like to think that I can play a constructive part in helping the Catholic Church to restore its reputation as a trustworthy guardian of children's education. I am sure that one way of doing this is for dioceses to maintain the openness and transparency mentioned in the Bishops' statement by keeping records of allegations such as mine, making them publicly available if need be, and passing copies to the statutory authorities, including the police.
I have set up two websites at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=115726931786338&ref=ts partly to keep my thinking on this matter in good order. I hope I may use images such as the photos of yourself and Bishop Joseph Rudderham to illustrate my text.
Yours sincerely
Michael Downes
--
Heather Cottage
9 Exmouth Road
Budleigh Salterton
Devon EX9 6AF
Tel: +44 (0)1395 446407
I have read with great interest the statement on child abuse issued by the Bishops of England and Wales on 22 April 2010.
I was inspired recently to write to Archbishop Nichols over Easter about the abuse which I suffered and witnessed at the hands of some brutal Christian Brothers while at Prior Park Preparatory School in the 1950s. My letter to Archbishop Nichols is attached, as is his sympathetic reply.
I am writing to you, partly because I have not as yet heard from the Safeguarding Officer mentioned by the Archbishop, and also because Cricklade lies within your diocese.
I noted particularly the sentences in the above Bishops' statement: "In our dioceses we will continue to make every effort, working with our safeguarding commissions, to identify any further steps we can take, especially concerning the care of those who have suffered abuse, including anyone yet to come forward with their account of their painful and wounded past. We are committed to continuing the work of safeguarding, and are determined to maintain openness and transparency, in close cooperation with the statutory authorities in our countries."
Since writing to Archbishop Nichols I have been investigating in greater depth some of the allegations against Christian Brothers at UK schools. I was dismayed to find even worse accounts than my own on sites such as http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/ As for the Archbishop's own former school at St Mary's College, Crosby, there is plenty of material at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110624368948881 to show that some of the Christian Brothers there were as brutal as Cricklade's.
I was brought up in a deeply Catholic family. My great-uncle Sir Martin Melvin was well-known in Catholic circles in the 1930s as chairman of the Universe newspaper, and was a Knight of St Gregory. My father's family was related by marriage to Maisie Ward, the Catholic writer and publisher. You can imagine that the Christian Brothers were a most negative factor as far as developing my Catholic faith was concerned. There were obviously many decent and kindly men among them, but the brutal and twisted ones should not have been allowed to come in contact with children, and the others, if they had had any moral character at all, should have voiced their concerns to the diocesan authorities.
I would like to think that I can play a constructive part in helping the Catholic Church to restore its reputation as a trustworthy guardian of children's education. I am sure that one way of doing this is for dioceses to maintain the openness and transparency mentioned in the Bishops' statement by keeping records of allegations such as mine, making them publicly available if need be, and passing copies to the statutory authorities, including the police.
I have set up two websites at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=115726931786338&ref=ts partly to keep my thinking on this matter in good order. I hope I may use images such as the photos of yourself and Bishop Joseph Rudderham to illustrate my text.
Yours sincerely
Michael Downes
--
Heather Cottage
9 Exmouth Road
Budleigh Salterton
Devon EX9 6AF
Tel: +44 (0)1395 446407
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