The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welbyleader of the Anglican church, submitted his resignation after a scandal broke out last week over cases of sexual abuse committed by a volunteer during religious camps decades ago.
Through a statement, he assured that is “sorry” to have ensured a proper investigation of the case. The report that came out last week concluded that Welby had not taken sufficient measures to stop the man identified as the most prolific serial abuser of the Church of England, accused of having physically and sexually assaulted 100 children and young people.
“Having requested the kind permission of His Majesty the King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury,” he said in a statement. “I hope this decision makes clear the seriousness with which the Church of England understands the need for change and our deep commitment to creating a safer Church. By resigning, I do it with the pain of all victims and survivors of abuse“, held.
Regarding the allegations of abuse against John Smythsaid that upon learning of the report he had a “deep sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England.”
Last Monday, Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle and the most senior member of the Church, had called on Welby to resign, following the “horrible, appalling and shocking” report.
New scandal over sexual abuse within the Church
The case that continues to generate an enormous stir within the Anglican Church has as its protagonist John Smyth, a lawyer who chaired a charity linked to the Church and organized summer camps. Between 1970s and mid-2010s sexually abused 130 children and young people in Britain and then in Africa, particularly Zimbabwe and South Africa.
In 2013 the Church had already been informed of these cases but they maintained their silence and carried out a “cover-up campaign”, concluded an investigation commissioned by the Church itself, in a report published last Thursday.
Smyth “is possibly the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England,” says the report, which details the “brutal and horrible” physical, sexual and psychological suffering of his victims.
Among other things, he took small children to his home in the south of England, where He beat them with a cane, sometimes until they bled, citing theological justifications.
As for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the report noted that he “could and should have reported” to the police the violence committed by the lawyer from 2013, when he became primate of the Church of England. Welby said that He had “neither idea nor suspicion” before 2013 but that he acknowledged having “personally failed” because he did not manage to have “this horrible tragedy” investigated after that date.
Smyth died in 2018 in South Africa at the age of 75 without having been tried.
According to another report published four years ago, 390 people linked to the Church of England were convicted of sexual offenses from the 1940s to 2018.
Source: Ambito
