I was interested in your article on David Enright and his representation of abuse victims and survivors of the Comboni Missionary Order (Lawyer in the news, 19 June).

I note that the quote you give from the Comboni Order is about safeguarding practice today and makes no reference to historic cases like the Comboni 12.

The Order has never apologised directly to the 12 and has consistently refused to meet them individually or as a group.

One of the tensions within the Catholic Church remains legal advice to bishops and religious superiors being given precedence over the tenets of the Christian gospel.

That is in itself appalling.

Everything Pope Francis has stated about the response to survivors of abuse – historic or current – is absent from the way the Comboni Order has treated the Comboni 12.

As former chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission for England and Wales, I continue to support the Comboni 12 in their continuing struggle to be heard by and apologised to by the Comboni Order.

Danny Sullivan

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