UK papers on Wednesday focused on the archbishop of Canterbury’s decision to resign amid mounting pressure from victims and members of the clergy over his handling of one of the church’s worst abuse scandals. The fallout continues as other church figures also face calls to step down.
The Guardian leads with Justin Welby’s “sorrow” at the abuse scandal, quoting him as saying his resignation was “in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honoured to serve”.
Pressure on Welby had intensified since the publication last week of a damning report on the Church of England’s cover-up of abuse by John Smyth in the UK in the late 1970s and early 80s, and later in Zimbabwe and, it is suspected, South Africa.
The Daily Express and the Mirror both splash on Welby’s “profound sense of shame” at what the Express calls “his failure to bring a child abuser to justice”. The Mirror highlights the finding of a report released last week that Smyth could have faced justice before his death in 2018 if Welby had formally reported it to police.
Welby could lose his seat in the House of Lords, the Daily Mail says, dedicating its front page to a “church in crisis”. The paper also highlighted survivors’ warnings that “Mr Welby should not be ‘a sacrificial lamb’” amid calls for other senior clergy to resign.
Victims have called for others to step down over their alleged failure to act, the Telegraph writes, with Welby resigning as the “sex abuse crisis engulfs more senior clergy”. Stephen Conway, now the bishop of Lincoln, told the paper he was “sorry” that he did not take further action after reporting what he had been told about Smyth but believed in 2013 he had done all he could and the allegations would be responded to appropriately.
The Times reports that the resignation is “without precedent” and attributes Welby’s decision to “growing pressure from priests serving on the church’s General Synod and, crucially, from the Bishop of Newcastle”.
The Independent reports that Smyth was “thought to have been the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England” and that UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he “respects the archbishop’s decision to step down”.
Welby resigned “hours after” Starmer branded the abuse scandal “horrific”, the Sun notes, though the paper leads with the fight for Gary Lineker’s job as presenter of Match of the Day and a proposal for Mark Chapman and Kelly Somers to share the top BBC gig.
