Welby ‘profoundly ashamed’ of comments he made after resigning as archbishop of Canterbury over scandal
Ben Quinn and Harriet Sherwood
The former archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said he forgives a serial abuser at the centre of the scandal that led to his resignation as leader of the Church of England and spoke of feeling “profoundly ashamed” of comments he made afterwards.
In his first interview since resigning in November, he also said he had “not really thought it through enough, to be honest” when he initially declined to quit last year.
Welby became the first head of the Church of England to resign over scandal after an independent review found he should have taken speedier and more robustaction over allegations of abuse by John Smyth.
About 130 boys are believed to have been victims of Smyth, a powerful lawyer who died in 2018.
Asked if he would forgive Smyth, Welby said in an interview broadcast on Sunday with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “Yes. I think if he was alive and I saw him, but it’s not me he’s abused.
“He’s abused the victims and survivors. So whether I forgive or not is, to a large extent, irrelevant.”
Reacting to Welby’s comments, a survivor of Smyth’s abuse told Kuenssberg: “I came forward 13 years ago and what the church has put me through makes the historic abuse pale into insignificance. It has been the most extraordinary traumatic journey trying to get answers. I don’t care about Smyth.”
The independent review by Keith Makin – in which he highlighted significant failings and proposed recommendations to improve safeguarding practices in the church – concluded that Smyth could have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally reported allegations to the police a decade ago.
İlk yorum yapan siz olun