The Archbishop of Canterbury is facing calls to resign over a Church abuse scandal
The head of the Church of England, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, is under pressure to resign after an investigation found he failed to report physical and sexual abuse by a Christian summer camp volunteer to police as soon as he became aware of it. of it.
Some members of the General Synod, the national assembly of this church, have started a petition to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to step down, saying that he “no longer trusts his priests.” The petition received more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by early London time on Monday.
Adding to the pressure, the senior pastor added his voice to those who believe he should resign. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, told the BBC that Welby's position was “impossible.”
Calls for Welby's resignation have grown since Thursday, when the church released the results of an independent investigation into John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa over five decades.
The 251-page report concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to the authorities when he was told of the abuse in August 2013, shortly after he became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Welby last week pledged to ensure the allegations were pursued “vigorously” as they should have done after learning of the abuse, but said he had decided not to resign.
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On Monday, his office released a statement emphasizing Welby's “shock at the scale of John Smyth's appalling abuse.”
“As he said, he did not know or regret the allegations before he was told in 2013 – therefore, as he has considered, he does not intend to resign,” the statement said. “He hopes the Makin Review supports the ongoing work of building a safe church here and around the world.”
Church officials were first made aware of the abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The recipients of that report “engaged in an active cover-up” to prevent the findings from coming to light, the Makin Review found.
Between 1984 and 2001, Smyth moved to Zimbabwe and then to South Africa. He continued to abuse boys and young men in Zimbabwe and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until his death in August 2018.
Smyth's abuse was not made public until a 2017 investigation by Britain's Channel 4, which led to Hampshire Police launching an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and were preparing to bring him home.
The Makin Review found that if Smyth had been reported to the police in 2013, it could have helped uncover the truth, prevented further abuse and led to a possible criminal conviction.
“In effect, three and a half years were lost, the time when John Smyth could have been brought to justice and any abuses he had committed in South Africa discovered and stopped,” the review found.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is considered the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. He is considered first among equals in relation to other communion animals.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
