Moment of shock and shame for Britain, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the leader of the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion, resigned on Tuesday after a stinging report found he failed to report serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps.
He has been accused of not acting quickly enough to help stop a heinous serial pedophile. Justin Welby, the head of the Church of England who performed the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the highest-ranking cleric in the Church of England and serves as the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby also presided over the coronation of King Charles III and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Welby said in a statement that the Makin Report, an independent probe into the sick scandal that was released Friday, “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses” that Smyth, who died in 2018, committed in Britain and South Africa.
As many as 130 boys and young men in Britain and Africa are believed to have been sexually abused by Smyth, who operated children’s camps connected to the Church of England since 2013.
“When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow,” said Welby, who also leads the global Anglican Communion, of which the US’s Episcopal Church is a member.
“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and re-traumatizing period between 2013 and 2024, said,” said Welby.
Welby’s office informed that the “precise timings” of his departure would be announced after “a review of [his] necessary obligations.”
