"Minister threatens Roman Catholic Church with closure"

From the BBC:

The Roman Catholic church in Great Britain has been warned to stop favouring men and boys over women and girls or face closure.

The condition is one of several set out by Baroness Warsi, Minister of State for Faith and Communities, in a letter to the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.

The letter states changes must be made by the 15 October, or the church's charitable status will be suspended.

Westminster Cathedral was closed for a week on the first day of an inspection by the Health & Safety Executive because of "health and safety issues". The HSE released a statement to "clarify media reports" about why the cathedral had closed.

In it, Chair of the HSE Board, Judith Hackitt said: "Inspectors discovered that staff records showing whether priests were cleared to supervise children were either missing or incomplete."