Retired English cardinal pressured to change passage on abuse in new book
June 01, 2015
The publisher of a new book by retired Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster, England, has complained that the work was censored by unnamed Church authorities.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was reportedly pressured to remove a section of his book, An English Spring, in which he defended his handling of sex-abuse complaints against a priest who was eventually jailed for molestation. In its place the cardinal wrote a new section, expressing regret for the failure to respond to sex-abuse victims. The book’s publisher told the Guardian that he considered the changes “regrettable.”
Questioned as to whether he had been under pressure to change the manuscript, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said: “I’d rather not answer that question.” He emphasized, however, that the final work was entirely his own.
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Further information:
- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor memoirs 'censored' by church (Guardian)
- But Church denies cardinal's book was censored before publication (Catholic Herald)
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