Apologising for past wrongs or misjudgments is always a little tricky – particularly if the apologiser wasn’t actually responsible for the event in the first place. Cardinal Vincent Nichols’s sensitive apology for the Church’s part in adoption policy of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s is kind, humble, Christian and graceful. But of course it was reported in a way that somewhat de-contextualised the subject.
The BBC (and the Guardian) ran with headlines about the head of the Catholic Church apologising for its part in “forced adoptions” in times gone by. This made it sound as though the Catholic Church was uniquely responsible for snatching babies from their mothers’ arms and placing them with waiting adopters.
