Fr Kit Cunningham's Paedophile Past: Heads Should Roll after the Rosminian Order's Disgraceful Cover-Up, by Damian Thompson, The Telegraph, June 21, 2011

Fr Kit Cunningham's Paedophile Past: Heads Should Roll after the Rosminian Order's Disgraceful Cover-Up

By Damian Thompson
The Telegraph
June 21, 2011

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100093079/fr-kit-cunninghams-paedophile-past-heads-should-roll-after-the-rosminian-orders-disgraceful-cover-up/

Fr Cunningham: child abuser

BBC1 will tonight screen a documentary, Abused: Breaking the Silence, that establishes beyond doubt that Fr Kit Cunningham, the jovial parish priest of St Ethedreda's church and for many years unofficial padre to Fleet Street, committed the most disgusting paedophile crimes as a young missionary in Africa. Fr Kit died last year – but he confessed his guilt shortly before his death, in a letter to one of his victims, and also returned his MBE to Buckingham Palace in a feeble gesture of repentance.

If you want to learn full details of his crimes, and those of other members of the Rosminian order, watch the programme. But, just in case there are any members of the Fr Kit fan club who suspect that he has been posthumously stitched up, let me insist that this is not the case. He sexually assaulted prep school boys at the order's school in Soli, Tanzania, and in at least one case forced a boy to perform a sex act on him.

Fr Cunningham received warm obituaries when he died last December aged 79. That's not a surprise: many a party was enlivened by his benevolent, boozy personality and he set high standards of liturgy at Ely Place. I myself have been the recipient of his kindness; when vague rumours of unspecified misbehaviour began to circulate immediately after his death, I advised the Catholic Herald that he should not be judged guilty without evidence. The paper scaled down its planned tribute to this "legendary" priest while it tried to find out what the fuss was about; it contacted the Provincial of the Rosminians in England, Fr David Myers – but he said not a word about any paedophile offences and, as a result, neither did the Herald or the rest of the media. We were quite deliberately kept in the dark.

You will learn from tonight's programme that, as Peter Stanford wrote in Sunday's Observer, "on the day that Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit to Britain last September, was in Westminster Cathedral expressing his 'deep sorrow to innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes', the Rosminian order was writing to refuse to pay any compensation for what it has openly acknowledged are the crimes of four of its own priests".

Peter Stanford was married by Fr Kit, who also baptised his son; like me, he found him an amiable and comforting presence, and – knowing nothing of the paedophile crimes – wrote an affectionate obituary of him in the Guardian. The obituary writers for the Telegraph and the Catholic Herald also knew nothing. Yet, as we now know, Fr Myers was extremely well-informed, and had been for a long time. Let me quote from an article just published on the Herald's website by Francis Phillips, who wrote the paper's obit of Cunningham:

Little did I realise when I briefly mentioned in the obituary that he "had spent 10 years as a missionary in Tanzania", that it was during this period, in the late 1960s, that Fr Cunningham had not only regularly sexually and psychologically abused young boys, the sons of expatriate Britons, in St Michael's School, Soni, in the then Tanganyika, but that he had also covered up for fellow priests who he knew were doing the same thing.

Full-page articles in the Times and the Observer (the latter written by Peter Stanford) make it clear that these are not merely allegations of as yet unproven abuse. It appears that Fr Cunningham had quietly sent back his MBE last year, at the same time writing to his victims: "My conscience is deeply disturbed by the breach of trust that God placed in me as a Catholic priest. Many of you have suffered and been scarred by your experiences. After much reflection I have decided to return my MBE."

So, an admission of guilt which tarnishes forever the memories his wide circle of friends have of him; which casts a shadow over the parish that he brought to life and where he was pastor for so many years; and which makes all the fulsome tributes written after his death now ring very hollow – not to speak of the long anguish and emotional scars suffered by his victims, now in middle age. And the worst aspect of all is what looks like a cover up in the Church; not just priests covering up for each other in a local culture of sinful complicity, but the Rosminian order itself: it knew of the truth of the allegations against Fr Cunningham at least a year before his death if not longer – and yet they still held a memorial service in January which duly echoed all the tributes paid to him on his death. This is appalling.

Indeed it is. The BBC documentary ends with a tape recording of Fr Myers delivering the memorial address as if nothing had happened. It will turn the stomachs of the Rosminians' victims – brave, articulate, angry men who emerge with great credit from the programme – and it should turn our stomachs, too. According to the documentary, Myers attempted to arrange a "reconciliation" between victims and abusers last year; but the order would rather hang on to its money because it apparently has better uses for it than to pay compensation to the men who, as little boys, had their penises fondled (among many other revolting acts) by Rosminian clergy.

You won't hear any excuses from me for this cover-up by the Catholic Church. My understanding is that other allegations will soon be made public. If the Rosminian order goes bankrupt and Myers is forced out of office as a result of these revelations, then so much the better.