The Bishop wants the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church to leave over abuse

The Anglican Church’s highest-ranking cleric is under pressure to resign. The Bishop of Newcastle is asking the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to resign after a damning report. An independent investigation shows that the leadership of the church failed to contact the police about a child.

The church, with tens of millions of believers around the world, commissioned their own investigation. The report, published last week, runs to 251 pages and paints a picture of a cover-up.

Accused serial rapper John Smyth has been held accountable on several levels. He was an active volunteer with the Anglican Church and is said to have abused over a hundred boys and men.

When church leaders at the time heard about the abuse in the 1980s, it was kept private. Smyth is said to have been asked to leave the UK for Africa. First in Zimbabwe and then in South Africa he continued to sexually assault boys. Smyth died in 2018 and was never convicted.

After the publication of the report, Welby, as the highest spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, apologized for the scandal. He confirmed that “many people who were fully aware of it” covered up the case. The archbishop says that all kinds of measures have been taken to prevent something like this from happening again.

“I personally have not ensured that a thorough investigation was carried out into the terrible tragedy,” the archbishop said. in a statement. In 2013, a year after taking office, Welby learned of the abuse scandal and “could and should have been reported to the authorities,” investigators said.

Some members of the General Assembly, or the church’s community board, have started a petition to have Welby resign immediately. The leaders want a change in the name of dozens of victims and “for the good of the Church”. The petition has been signed more than 6,000 times online.

“I think people are right to ask: can we really trust the Church of England to keep us safe? interview with of the BBC.

Hartley is the most senior cleric to openly oppose the archbishop. There is also support for Welby within the church leadership. His supporters believe he has been unfairly labeled a scapegoat.

The scandal within the Anglican Church is not an isolated incident. Several studies have shown that abuse has been widespread in Christian churches for decades. For example, researchers in France determined that between 1950 and 2020 about 330,000 children has been sexually abused within the Catholic Church by, for example, priests and clergy.