Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over handling of sex abuse claims

Justin Welby on Tuesday confirmed that he would be stepping down as the head of the Church of England. He needed to take personal and institutional responsibility for the failure to properly address the sexual abuses of a lawyer involved in children’s ministries associated with the church, Welby said. His resignation came shortly after the publication of a report cataloging the abuses conducted by the lawyer in question, John Smyth.

What sort of abuses were these? Smyth prolifically, brutally, and horrifically abused young boys and men during his time in ministry, according to the report. Clergy members first found out about Smyth’s actions in 1982. But those ministers engaged in an active cover-up to prevent the truth about Smyth’s activities from coming to light, the report said. Meanwhile, the clergy also failed to prevent further abuses by Smyth.

How does Welby become involved in this? Welby first learned of the abuse in 2013, he explained in his statement Tuesday. He said he was told that police had been notified about the situation and that he wrongly believed that was sufficient. However, the report showed that while leaders at the highest levels of the Church of England were informed of Smyth’s activities in 2012, and 2013, they failed to take steps to mitigate the threat of abuse for the next several years until Smyth died in 2018. When independent media reported about Smyth’s actions in 2017, the church again failed to properly respond, the report added.

Welby said that he hoped his resignation would demonstrate the church’s commitment to developing better methods and procedures for protecting its parishioners. In the coming days, Welby said he would meet with victims and delegate his responsibilities to others.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report about how a Texas megachurch removed several of its staff and elders following reports of sexual abuse.