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"The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has asked the Vatican to posthumously remove Jimmy Savile&amp;#039;s papal knighthood. Savile was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II in 1990, in recognition of the TV presenter&amp;#039;s charity work.  Now in the light of revelations that Savile may have abused up to 300 people, the BBC reports that the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, has written to the Vatican to ask for the honour to be rescinded. The Archbishop has called for an investigation after recognising the &amp;quot;deep distress&amp;quot; of Savile&amp;#039;s victims. The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has written to the Vatican to ask if Jimmy Savile&amp;#039;s papal knighthood can be posthumously removed, the Church has confirmed. A spokesman for the Archbishop said that the Reverend &amp;quot;wrote last week to the Holy See asking the competent office to investigate whether the papal honour awarded to Jimmy Savile for his charitable works could be posthumously removed and its effects nullified&amp;quot;. However, a Vatican spokesman claimed that removing the honour was not strictly possible even though it was an &amp;quot;exceptional request&amp;quot;, as the blessing is not officially recorded anywhere by the Vatican, and therefore the honour dies with the recipient.  Father Vincent Lombardi said that the Vatican was &amp;quot;deeply saddened that a person who has been soiled in this way could in his lifetime have been proposed for an honour by the Holy See, which in the light of recent information should certainly not have been bestowed&amp;quot;. He continued: &amp;quot;The most important thing, therefore, is to reaffirm the Church&amp;#039;s condemnation of all forms of sexual abuse, and particularly abuse of minors, as extremely grave crimes. The Holy See is adamant on this point.&amp;quot; The scandal has led to the BBC coming under fire for its handling both of Savile while he was working for the corporation and of its coverage of the subsequent accusations by victims, leading to Director General George Entwistle having to face questions from MPs. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/media/news/a433785/jimmy-savile-archbishop-asks-vatican-to-remove-papal-knighthood/>