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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has announced his resignation following a report that found he “could and should” have reported child abuse by John Smyth to the police in 2013. In a statement, Mr Welby said he must take “personal and institutional responsibility” for his response and believed “stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England.” Welby had faced mounting pressure to resign since the report’s publication.
The review found that from July 2013, “the Church of England knew, at the highest level, about the abuse that took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” including Mr Welby. Smyth is accused of attacking up to 30 boys in the 1970s and 1980s and 85 to 100 in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The Archbishop said his decision to step down doesn’t absolve anyone involved in the “wholesale changes in culture and leadership that are essential in every part of the Church,” saying he had been struggling for nearly twelve years to introduce improvements. “It is for others to judge what has been done,” he added.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he “respected the decision that has been taken, and his thoughts remain first and foremost with all the victims”. Following his resignation, a “nationwide consultation” will be held to ask people in and out of the Church of England what they want from the next Archbishop. The process of choosing his successor is expected to take at least six months.
Since the report’s publication, three members of the Church’s parliament, the General Synod, accused Mr Welby of “allowing abuse to continue.” They launched a petition calling for his resignation, which had been signed by more than 13,000 people by Tuesday afternoon. One of the Synod members who started the petition said: “I think it’s sad that it’s taken so long for meaningful action to take place”, hoping that resignation would be the first step towards “cultural change in [the Church’s] senior leadership.
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