"I Got It Wrong": Former Anglican Church Head Admits Error In Abuse Scandal

The former head of the world's Anglicans, Justin Welby, on Saturday admitted errors over an abuse scandal that rocked the Church of England and forced him to resign last year.

The ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, who was temporarily replaced in January by the Archbishop of York, reflected on the fallout in an interview with the BBC, which will be released in full on Sunday.

Welby, 68, resigned after a report found the Church of England had covered up a 1970s serial abuse case and that he failed to report the abuses to authorities when they came to his attention in 2013.

According to the independent probe, John Smyth, a lawyer who organised evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, was responsible for the abuse of as many as 130 boys and young men.

Smyth died aged 75 in South Africa in 2018 while under investigation by British police. He never faced any criminal charges.

"Every day more cases were coming across the desk that... in the past, hadn't been dealt with adequately," Welby told the BBC.

"It was overwhelming, one was trying to prioritise -- but I think it's easy to sound defensive over this," he added.

"The reality is I got it wrong. As archbishop, there are no excuses."

'Distrust for institutions' 

The scandal shocked the UK and prompted widespread calls for reform in the Church of England, whose supreme governor is the British monarch.

However, Welby cautioned: "I think there is a rush to judgement, there is this immense... distrust for institutions and there's a point where you need institutions to hold society together," Welby said.

After the report came out, Welby initially resisted calls to resign, insisting that he did not know about Smyth's case before 2013.

However, he ultimately stepped down after a petition demanding his resignation garnered over 12,000 signatures and leading clergy publicly urged him to leave his post.

"There is an absence of forgiveness: we don't treat our leaders as human," Welby said.

"We expect them to be perfect. If you want perfect leaders, you won't have any leaders," he added.

The Church of England has some 20 million baptised members, but the number of regular churchgoers is estimated at just under one million, according to figures for 2022.

The next head of the church will be appointed by King Charles III following a lengthy selection process under a former head of the MI5 domestic security service.

The appointee's name will not be known until the autumn, according to British media.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, 66, the Church's second-most senior cleric, has taken over as interim head of the institution.

Cottrell too faced calls to quit in December over claims he mishandled a sexual abuse case during his time as the Bishop of Chelmsford.

The Anglican Church is the established state Church in England and dates to King Henry VIII's split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s.

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