After days of global public outcry, the Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned, over a damning report into a violent long-term child abuser associated with the Church of England
In his resignation statement, Justin Welby admitted that the report “exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth”
“I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow”, he added.
Smyth was not brought to justice before he died in South Africa in 2018.
Before Welby’s resignation, one of Smyth’s victims told the BBC about the beatings he suffered in the hands of the serial abuser who was described as sadistic.
Welby’s resignation comes as a change of mind as he had insisted that he would not resign after giving it “a lot of thought”.
In a statement last Thursday, the Archbishop of Canterbury 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”.
Justin Welby added: “I had no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013.”
The Makin report into Smyth’s abuse is a “very important step on the way to a safer church,” said Welby.
But on Tuesday he expressed a change of mind, saying: “I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.
“For nearly twelve years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.
“I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honoured to serve.”
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