How the Church covered up its Casanova Bishop for 12 years

By all accounts, the ordination of Kieran Conry was a suitably dignified and solemn affair. Hundreds of worshippers filled the vast neo-Gothic spaces of Arundel Cathedral in West Sussex to watch him be installed as their new Roman Catholic bishop in June 2001. But even as the car mechanic’s son from Coventry lay prostrate on the Cathedral’s stone floor to show his humility before God in the historic ceremony, rumours were circulating about his suitability for the weighty role ahead of him...

This week, after more than 13 years as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, 63-year-old Conry dramatically resigned after revelations of love affairs with two parishioners — one of them a 43-year-old married mother-of-two — admitting that he had been ‘unfaithful to his promises’ as a priest.But his insistence that the Catholic Church knew nothing about his affairs has been met with a chorus of disbelief — and not just from the husband of one of the women.The husband is now consulting lawyers after claiming to have proof that the Catholic authorities did know about Conry’s behaviour, and simply chose to turn a blind eye to it. There are growing calls from leading Catholics for a Papal inquiry into who within the Church knew what, and when.

As Conry’s resignation threatens to plunge the Church into yet another scandal, Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Archbishop Vincent Nichols, has refused to comment on accusations of yet another cover-up.But an investigation by the Mail reveals firm evidence that fears about Conry’s celibacy were indeed being raised even before he became a bishop in 2001, and suggests the existence of a third woman in his life.I have discovered that the claims circulating about Conry were then printed in a Catholic publication — an influential international monthly magazine sent to every Catholic diocese, or district, in Britain, as well as to the Pope himself in Rome — as long as 12 years ago.The January 2002 edition of Christian Order, which is published in Britain, quoted an unnamed priest saying: ‘Kieran was often seen out and about with his female friend. Everyone knew about it.’