Child abuse should be
"no more acceptable
than drink driving"
says Archbishop of Canterbury.
October 7th 2020.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) released its investigation report into the Church of England yesterday. It identifies 390 convicted offenders over a period spanning 1940s until 2018, but warns that it is simply not possible to identify accurately the true scale of sexual offending. Survivor groups say this is only the tip of the iceberg.
“The culture of the Church of England facilitated it becoming a place where abusers could hide,” says the report. “Deference to the authority of the Church and to individual priests, taboos surrounding discussion of sexuality and an environment where alleged perpetrators were treated more supportively than victims presented barriers to disclosure that many victims could not overcome.
“Another aspect of the Church’s culture was clericalism, which meant that the moral authority of clergy was widely perceived as beyond reproach.”
It's a depressingly familiar story that echoes that of their Roman Catholic counterparts, and it is now self evident that between these two Christian edifices, many thousands of priests have been allowed to abuse children at will, only suffering a relocation to another parish if things got out of hand.
The report also says that Church leaders repeatedly “used forgiveness to justify a failure to respond appropriately to allegations” and as the appropriate and final response to any admission of wrongdoing.
It also cited one Robert Waddington (now deceased), about whom series allegations were made in the nineties. The then Archbishop of York dismissed the allegations, saying there was 'simply no possibility' they could be correct. The churches response to incontestable evidence about the Reverend Ian Hughes who downloaded over 8,000 images of child pornography was that he must have been 'lured into it'.
By the devil, perhaps.
The inquiry's chair, Prof Alexis Jay, also led investigations into the Rotherham child abuse ring.
Pic: IISCA
Whilst the report covers almost eight decades, it provides a great many examples which are more recent. In 2018 for example, there were 2054 'safeguarding concerns' reported about children or vulnerable adults, and 449 specifically concerning the sexual abuse of children. The inquiry even found examples of clergymen being ordained despite a history of child sexual offences.
The response from the church has been both predictable and inadequate, but it's also curiously instructive. It apologised with all the humility and shame it could muster, and has set up a compensation fund which could cost them some £200 million, according to some reports. It has also removed a startling 12 month time limit on reporting abuse. Just to put this into context, there is no limitation on any criminal offence tried above magistrate level in the UK – never mind something as serious as child abuse – but the Anglican Church saw fit to impose a 12 month limit on such reports within its congregation. Interestingly, that's the same as the statute of limitation for slander or malicious falsehood for the rest of us.
It is also resigned to the fact that such abuse will continue, whilst saying that it is 'completely committed' to following the report's recommendations and will ensure such matters will be better dealt with in the future. In reply to questions put by Fiona Scolding QC, the AoC said that the culture of parish churches needed to change, so that 'safeguarding failures were as unacceptable as drink driving'. He told the enquiry that the C of E's safeguarding powers 'probably needed re-looking at'.
Perhaps we should be impressed that the Anglican Church has recognised there is a problem, and their leader has elevated it to the seriousness of having had one over the odds and then driving home. There is no doubt that this is at least progress when compared to their former position of blanket forgiveness.
​
I haven't read the report, and nor do I intend to as its findings come as no surprise.
This article is based on various reports in the media that I consider balanced and reliable – including the Church Times.