The Church of England must “do whatever it takes” to put right its failings in the way it deals with sexual abuse, the archbishop of Canterbury has said.
Speaking the day after an independent inquiry said the church had protected its own reputation and given abusers a place to hide, Justin Welby said: “Nothing must get in the way and we must do whatever it takes. This report is a big wake-up call.”
The findings of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) were “shameful and disgraceful” but “didn’t come as a surprise”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The report revealed “a culture in which there was cover-up and hiding, and it is deeply shaming”, he said.
When he became archbishop of Canterbury in 2013, he had been “shocked … by the extent to which [abuse and its cover-up] was happening”.
But the C of E had “begun a journey of changing that and now certainly over the last few years it is a very serious matter, a disciplinary matter for anyone to cover up any abuse at all”.
He added: “Since I came into this job I have worked as hard as I could to move the church to a different place. It is necessary to show that we have changed and we’ve systems in place, and part of that is independent oversight.”
Welby would not contradict the report’s claims that more support was given to sexual abusers than to victims and survivors, and that a more independent approach to safeguarding was needed.
“The whole system has been broken, the way we deal with this, and it needs to move towards, as the report suggests, a much more independent oversight of safeguarding. [One] in which there is responsibility clearly assigned and it is not in the hands of those who are, in a phrase that was used in the inquiry, seeking to mark their own homework.”
He added: “I think we have been poor at leading with redress and dealing with the victims and survivors, I don’t dispute that for a moment.
“I think actually we’re very bad at supporting those who are most deeply affected by the allegations of abuse, so the families and those close to the person who has abused, who themselves can in a sense be the deep victims of abuse.
“We have not cared for them as we should, the whole lack of care in this is shocking. We have become bureaucratised. We need to focus and put at the centre of our attention now, the victims and survivors.”
The report recommended that responsibility to keep children and vulnerable adults safe should be removed from bishops and handed over to professional safeguarding officials in each diocese.
