Senior Church of England leader steps down after shocking abuse report surfaces
Top Anglican leader **Justin Welby** quits over mis-handled abuse case from summer camps dating back to 70s. His exit comes after report shows Church knew about severe physical abuse but didnt act properly
The Church of Englands top leader Justin Welby quit his post on nov-12‚ taking blame for not doing enough about a major abuse scandal. The long-time Archbishop made this choice after a report showed he didnt properly handle info about terrible things that happened at christian summer-camps
A detailed investigation (called the Makin Report) showed that lawyer John Smyth hurt more than 100 young men at these camps back in the 70s. The report says Welby worked at these camps before becoming a priest but claims he didnt know about the abuse; however investigators dont think thats likely
The Church knew about these awful acts around 11 years ago but didnt do much about it. Smyth moved to africa in the mid-80s and kept hurting people until he died about 6 years ago. The reports findings show that if police got involved when the Church first knew‚ they might have caught him
- Bishop Graham Usher who supports gay-rights
- Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani who grew up in Iran
- Both might become the next leader
Welbys time as leader wasnt easy — he had to deal with fights between different parts of the church about women priests and gay marriage. African church leaders (who didnt like his choices) will probably be happy hes gone. The next person in charge needs to fix the churches problems: less people go to church now than 5 years ago‚ and different groups dont agree on many things
I must take personal and institutional responsibility for lack of action on the heinous abuses
