Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been asked to resign over his failure to rigorously follow up on reports of child abuse linked to the Church of England.
On Thursday, a report revealed that “horrific” and violent abuse of more than 100 children and young men by John Smyth QC, a British barrister, was covered up within the Church of England for decades.
The report followed an independent review by the archbishops’ council of the Church of England.
Smyth QC, who died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018, was accused of attacking boys at his home in Winchester who he had met at a Christian summer camp in Dorset during the 1970s and 1980s.
He was said to have carried out lashings with a garden cane in his shed with eight boys receiving a total of 14,000 lashes, while two more received 8,000 strokes between them over three years.
Smyth QC is believed to be the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.
The report said Welby did not follow up rigorously enough on reports of Smyth QC’s “abhorrent” abuse, adding that he “could and should” have reported the case to authorities when details were presented to him in 2013.
Three members of the Church’s parliament – the general synod – have started a petition calling for Welby to resign over his “failures” to report Smyth’s abuse
Helen-Ann Hartley, bishop of Newcastle, has also called for his resignation.
She is the most senior member of the Church to call on Welby to step down.
Hartley said it would be hard for the Church to “continue to have a moral voice” when “we cannot get our own house in order with regard to something as critically important”.
“It’s very hard to find the words to respond adequately to what the report tells us,” Bishop Hartley told the BBC.
“I think rightly people are asking the question ‘Can we really trust the Church of England to keep us safe?’ And I think the answer at the moment is ‘no’.”
She said while Welby’s resignation would not “solve the safeguarding problem,” it would “be a very clear indication that a line has been drawn, and that we must move towards independence of safeguarding”.
In a statement, Welby said he was “deeply sorry that this abuse happened” and “sorry that concealment by many people who were fully aware of the abuse over many years meant that John Smyth was able to abuse overseas and died before he ever faced justice”.
“I had no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013,” he said.
