The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned after an independent review uncovered his failure to report the many incidents of child abuse by former prominent church figure John Smyth.
Between the 1970s and his death in 2018, over 100 boys and young men in the UK and Africa were abused by the late John Smyth. A 251-page report concluded that Welby was informed of the abuse in August 2013, right after he became Archbishop of Canterbury.
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Rather than report Smyth to the authorities, Welby kept it under wraps, allowing the abuse to continue. Before devoting his life to the priesthood, Welby was an oil executive who left the unethical industry in 1989 to bring a little bit of that scumminess into the church.
Welby wasn’t the only member of the church to suppress information about Smith’s abuse. The report says that church officials were aware of Smith’s crimes as early as 1982 but swept it under the rug. His failure to act allowed the abuse to continue. Church leaders and victims criticizing his inaction increased pressure for his resignation.
All this comes after a 2022 report found widespread sexual abuse throughout the Church of England’s history, wherein, according to the report, the church was essentially turned into “a place where abusers could hide.”
That tradition continued well into the modern day, embodied by Smyth, who continued to abuse boys and young men up until his dying days in August 2018 in South Africa. Smith would often attempt to convince those he was abusing by suggesting that “the way to Christ was through suffering.” He would then subject them to “dramatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks” that “permanently marked the lives of his victims.”
Pressure for Welby’s resignation intensified as more church leaders and victims publicly criticized his inaction. The bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, argued that Welby had lost the confidence of the clergy, while victims like Andrew Morse, one of Smyth’s survivors, called for his departure as a step toward healing. Welby’s resignation marks the culmination of years of criticism and a broader reckoning with the Church’s mishandling of historical abuse cases.
The scandal also reflects a larger issue within the Church of England, highlighted by the report on institutional failure to address sexual abuse. Welby’s departure signals a moment of accountability, but the path toward reform within the Church remains challenging, as trust in its leadership has been severely damaged.
