Last week, nearly 150 safeguarding experts attended the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ conference on how to best protect children from sexual abuse in the Church in Europe. The participants – from more than 20 countries in Europe – included bishops, priests, and religious and lay people; also attending were Vatican leaders and representatives from the European bishops conference commission. As the pontifical commission’s president, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, retired archbishop of Boston, addressed the conference via video message.
Pope Francis, too, had a message for those gathered Nov. 13-15. He said participants’ “commitment to this cause [of safeguarding against abuse] is a sign of the Church’s continuing efforts to protect the most vulnerable in our midst.” He assured them of his prayers, saying he hoped the conference would be “a source of fruitful insights” and that their deliberations “will contribute to a safer and more compassionate Church and a deeper commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults within the Church.”
The Roman Catholic Church is certainly not the only Christian denomination or the only religion to address sexual abuse. Most recently, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, resigned. In a dramatic announcement Nov. 12, he said he was stepping down due to his handling of a high-profile abuse case involving a Christian summer camp volunteer.
For some context, the Anglican Communion traces its origins to the 16th century Reformation, when King Henry VIII rejected papal authority and established the Church of England. Initially, Anglicanism spread through the British colonization and English-speaking missionaries. The Anglican Communion emerged as a global network of autonomous churches, united by shared traditions and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership. Today, it consists of 42 member churches worldwide. It serves as a bridge between Catholic and Protestant traditions. There are approximately 85 million Anglicans in the world. They are the third-largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
On Nov. 7, an independent investigation released a long-awaited report into the late John Smyth, a Canadian-born British barrister and serial child abuser. He sexually, psychologically and physically abused more than 100 boys and young men at Christian summer camps in the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and South Africa over a 50-year span. The 251-page report concluded that Archbishop Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. Had he done so, Smyth could have been stopped sooner, and many of his victims would not have been abused, the report found.
In the days after the report, Archbishop Welby refused to resign, “saying he was wrongly informed that police had already been notified and that he should not do anything to interfere with their investigation.” But this position could not be maintained, as a growing number of church leaders and victims criticized him for failing to take responsibility. In announcing his resignation, Archbishop Welby said, “It is very clear that I take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024.”
Like our own denomination, the Church of England has faced a long series of allegations that priests and others within the church used their positions to abuse young men and women. An independent investigation established by the British government found that 390 people associated with the Church of England were convicted of child sexual abuse from the 1940s to 2018. It concluded that a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England “a place where abusers could hide.” Supporters of Archbishop Welby claim he was instrumental in changing the culture of the church and improving its safeguarding procedures after becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013.
“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church,” Welby said. “As I step down, I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.”
Father Joseph D. Wallace is diocesan director of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs and pastor of Christ the Redeemer Parish, Atco.
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