Group wants Stations removed

National Catholic Reporter, July 17, 1998

A group of victims of childhood sexual abuse held a vigil outside Westminster Cathedral to protest church authorities' refusal to remove Stations of the Cross carved by an artist accused of sexual abuse.

The Christian Survivors of Sexual Abuse group has asked cathedral authorities and Cardinal George Basil Hume of Westminster to remove the stone panels carved by Eric Gill. A convert: to Catholicism, Gill sculpted the Stations in 1913 and died in 1940. A 1989 biography said that he had sexually abused two of his three daughters and had incestuous relations with his sisters.

Margaret Kennedy, coordinator of the London-based survivor's group, said the purpose of the June 27 vigil was to pray for Gill's victims and all victims of abuse. Nine members of the group stood outside the cathedral for two hours, praying, singing and handing out leaflets to cathedral visitors.

"What we object to is that people have to pray in front of a pedophile's art work," Kennedy said. "How can his work be seen as a focus of prayer? To us it seems as if incest is carved on every wall of the cathedral."

Kennedy said that in various responses from Hume and cathedral authorities, she was told a distinction should be made between Gill's artistic endeavors and his private life. "Isn't this sending the wrong message to survivors?" Kennedy asked. "When will the Catholic church realize that no matter a person's skills, the harm they have done cannot be ignored?"