London — The head of the Anglican Church, the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglican church, failed to immediately report to police about repeated physical and sexual abuse by volunteers at a Christian summer camp, an investigation found. and is under pressure to resign. Of that.
Some members of the Church’s national parliament, the General Synod, have launched a petition calling for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to resign, saying he has “lost the confidence of the clergy”. The petition had gathered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by early Monday morning London time.
Compounding the pressure, a senior cleric added his voice to those who think he should resign. Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley told the BBC that Mr Welby’s position was “untenable”.
The calls for Mr Welby’s resignation come after the church announced on Thursday the findings of an independent investigation into John Smith, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused around 30 boys and young people in the UK and 85 in Africa. It has increased since it was announced.
The 251-page report concluded that Mr Welby did not report the abuse to authorities when he was made aware of Mr Smith’s abuse in August 2013, shortly after becoming Archbishop of Canterbury.
Mr Welby last week took responsibility for not pursuing the allegations as “vigorously” as he should have after learning of the abuse, but said he had decided not to resign.
On Monday, his office issued a statement reiterating Mr Welby’s “horror comparable to John Smith’s appalling abuse”.
“As he has stated, he had no knowledge or suspicion of the allegations until he was accused in 2013. Therefore, he has no intention of resigning after remorse,” the statement said. “He wants Makin’ Review to support the ongoing effort to build a safer church here and around the world.”
Church officials first became aware of the abuse in 1982 when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smith. The report’s recipients “participated in an active cover-up” to prevent its findings from coming to light, the Makin Review found.
From 1984 to 2001, Smith moved to Zimbabwe and then to South Africa. He continued to abuse boys and young people in Zimbabwe, and there is evidence that his abuse continued in South Africa until his death in August 2018.
Smith’s abuse was not made public until a 2017 investigation by British Channel 4 television, which prompted Hampshire Police to investigate. Police were planning to question Mr. Smith at the time of his death and were preparing to hand him over.
Makin’ Review found that had Smith been reported to police in 2013, the truth could have been uncovered, preventing further abuse and potentially leading to a criminal conviction.
“In effect, three-and-a-half years were lost during which John Smith could have been brought to justice and all the abuses he was committing in South Africa could have been discovered and stopped,” the review said. There is.
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 to be of equal first rank with respect to the other primates of the Holy Communion.
