2 weeks Ago By The Telegraph
Justin Welby has said he forgives the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England. The former Archbishop of Canterbury also admitted he holds a “deep sense of personal failure” about the handling of allegations against the late John Smyth . Mr Welby resigned as the most senior bishop in the Church of England in November , and officially left the role in January, after a report found he did not do enough to act on reports about Smyth.
The independent review, by Keith Makin, concluded Mr Welby did not adequately follow up on claims about the Christian camp leader and barrister. It said Smyth might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported allegations to police in 2013. Mr Welby initially refused to resign and remained in post for a further five days before announcing he would quit.
In his first interview since his resignation, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that he should have stepped down sooner. “What changed my mind was having been caught by the report being leaked and not really thought it through enough, to be honest,” he said. “Over that weekend, as I read it and reread it and as I reflected on the horrible suffering of the survivors which had been, as many of them said, more than doubled by the institutional Church’s failure to respond adequately, it increasingly became clear to me that I needed to resign.
” Later in the interview, he indicated he forgives Smyth, who is said to have abused as many as 130 boys and young men across five decades in three different countries, including the UK and in Africa. Asked if he would forgive the late clergyman he said: “Yes, I think if he was alive and I saw him. “But it’s not, it’s not me he has abused.
He’s abused the victims and survivors. So, whether I forgive or not is, to a large extent, irrelevant.” Mr Welby also said he failed to handle allegations of historical sexual abuse of children properly because they were on an “overwhelming” scale .
He said that while this was not an excuse, it was a reason he had not prioritised the Smyth case and admitted: “The reality is I got it wrong.” Smyth died in Cape Town in 2018 aged 75 while under investigation by Hampshire Police. The Makin review noted he was “never brought to justice for the abuse”.
Asked if he wanted forgiveness from Smyth’s victims, Mr Welby said: “Obviously, but it’s not about me. When we talk about safeguarding, the centre of it is the victims and survivors. “I have never, ever said to a survivor, ‘you must forgive’, because that is their sovereign, absolute individual choice.
Everyone wants to be forgiven, but to demand forgiveness is to abuse again.” Repeating an apology to the victims, he said: “Just for the avoidance of doubt, I am utterly sorry and feel a deep sense of personal failure both for the victims of Smyth not being picked up sufficiently after 2017 when we knew the extent of it, and for my own personal failures.” Mr Welby said he had not been “sufficiently pushy in a way that I would have been a few years later”, insisting the first he heard of Smyth’s offences was in August of 2013.
“I’d been in post 11 weeks and safeguarding had been the crisis I hadn’t foreseen. I didn’t realise how bad it was,” he added. Mr Welby also said that thinking back to his final speech in the House of Lords weeks after announcing his resignation caused him to “wince”.
Critics accused Mr Welby of making light of safeguarding failures in the address after he drew laughter from the Lords benches by referring to a 14th-century beheading. He also said: “If you pity anyone, pity my poor diary secretary” because they had seen weeks and months of work “disappear in a puff of a resignation announcement”. Mr Welby told the BBC he “wasn’t in a good space at the time” and should not have given the valedictory speech at all – and was “profoundly ashamed” of the speech.
He added: “It’s one of those moments where, when I think of it, I just wince. It was entirely wrong and entirely inexcusable.” A victim of Smyth, known only as Graham, told the BBC: “What the Church has put me through makes the historic abuse pale into insignificance”.
He said attempting to get answers and support had been “the most extraordinary, traumatic journey”. Graham accused Mr Welby of “scrabbling around for explanation” and said the Church remained overwhelmed by abuse cases and was no better at dealing with abuse. Asked if would ever forgive Mr Welby, Graham said: “Not if he continues to blank us and refuses to tell us the truth.
” Bishop Joanne Grenfell, the Church’s lead safeguarding bishop, said Mr Welby’s interview would be “a reminder to Smyth survivors of their awful abuse and its lifelong effects”. She added: “I know they continue to be offered support and we are deeply sorry for the abuse they suffered. “If anyone comes forward to the Church today with a concern, they will be heard and responded to carefully and compassionately by safeguarding professionals according to our clearly set out guidance.
” The bishop added: “Every member of the Church is responsible for a culture in which victims are heard, responded to well, and put first: there is never a place for covering up abuse.”.
