Bishop Calls on Anglican Leader to Quit Over Handling of Abuse Scandal

A Church of England bishop on Monday called for the resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, days after a report concluded that he had failed to ensure a proper investigation into claims of sadistic abuse decades ago at Christian summer camps.

An independent review last week said that the archbishop had taken insufficient action following reports of “abhorrent” abuse of more than 100 boys and young men starting in the 1970s by John Smyth, a prominent British lawyer.

From July 2013, the Church of England knew at the highest level about the abuse, the report said, while Mr. Welby became aware of the claims against Mr. Smyth around August 2013, months after he became archbishop.

Mr. Smyth could and should have been reported to the police in 2013, the report said, a step that probably would have led to a full investigation, the uncovering of the serial nature of the abuses in Britain, involving multiple victims, and the possibility of a conviction being brought against him. Mr. Smyth died in 2018, in South Africa.

The report criticized the actions of a number of people within the church. “Despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the abuse to the attention of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others were wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup,” it said.

In a statement in response to Mr. Makin’s report, the archbishop said: “I had no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013. Nevertheless the review is clear that I personally failed to ensure that after disclosure in 2013 the awful tragedy was energetically investigated.” He repeated an apology he had made to the review itself, for “not meeting quickly with victims after the full horror of the abuse was revealed” in a 2017 Channel 4 investigation.