Why in the name of God is Justin Welby still clinging to his job? Why isn’t this supposed Holy man crippled with shame and embarrassment at his failure to stop and have prosecuted John Smyth, THE most prolific child abuser ever to be associated with the Church of England.
And because of Welby’s cowardice and his abject failure as a human being the lives of God knows how many boys have been ruined forever.
He HAS to go. No ifs no buts. And he shouldn’t be allowed to resign quietly and slink off into the night. King Charles – who is the head of the Church of England and so the only person who can remove him – should publicly tell him he has to go.
Because this so-called Man of God’s silence protected a paedophile. And I don’t care if Welby is King Charles’ friend. I don’t care how many royals he has married, christened or buried. All that matters here is the ruined lives of those abused boys.
And right now our King needs to show the British people he understands our horror and to Hell with his friendship with Justin Welby.
The fact is John Smyth was a monster who beat scores of terrified boys till they bled. It’s believed he abused more than 130 boys and EIGHT of those desperate boys received 14,000 cruel strokes of a whip and God knows what else at his cruel hand.
And this is the man who was Justin Welby’s friend.
And although Welby’s insists he knew nothing about Smyth’s perversion until 2013 the Makin Report — commissioned in 2019 by the Church of England to investigate — makes it clear it’s highly unlikely Welby didn’t know what was going on.
Word of Smyth’s vile abuses had been circulating as early as 1981. Reports from concerned churchmen were written about him. There were rumours circulating throughout the Church’s hierarchy for years and Welby was part of that hierarchy.
How can he claim he knew nothing and heard nothing until 2013? What Smyth — an eminent QC who ran annual Church summer camps for young boys — was doing was an open secret and for Welby to say he heard nothing before 2013 is hard to believe.
Even the Makin report concludes that its “unlikely that Justin Welby would have no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in the 1980’s in the UK.”
So there. That report has been five years in the making and its suggesting that Welby DID know and did NOTHING. How can any decent human being — let alone a high ranking churchman — not pass on information about these abuses to the police? Why sit on it and do nothing?
And if he wants us to believe he new nothing of these abuses until 2013 why hasn’t he told us why he didn’t act back then?
And if he was told why didn’t he notify the cops in 2013? Because it wasn’t until 2017 that they started an investigation by which time Smyth had fled to south Africa where he abused more poor boys. Three and a half years were lost because of Welby and God knows how many boys lives were wrecked by his cruel inaction.
People will have to make their own judgements on why he didn’t report Smyth. But what it does scream is that he didn’t want what he knew would be a scandal to rock HIS boat.
He cared more about himself, his position and his reputation than he did about those abused boys. And for THAT he should be removed as Archbishop right now.
As for him issuing apology after apology about not acting sooner — it just isn’t going to cut it here, NOT when we’re talking about ruined lives and paedophilia.
Where are the man’s morals? Where is his Christian responsibility? Because currently it’s looking like he has neither. Last week, when he was asked if he should resign, he haughtily said: “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and I’ve taken advice from senior colleagues and no, I’m not going to resign for this.”
What bloody arrogance!
And who the Hell are these senior colleagues? Because from where I’m sitting his colleagues are, quite rightly, turning on him and want him gone for the safety and the future of the Church.
This week three members of the Church of England’s General Synod set up a petition calling for his resignation and Helen Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle, says urgent action is needed to prevent the Church losing “complete credibility”.
Vicars all over the country, not known for their militancy, are demanding he go and many have taken to social media and are re tweeting the #WelbyResign because they know his damning silence has harmed the Church.
Welby should know that too. And if he has a shred of decency — and those who know him believe he has — then he must go for the sake of his Church, his God and those poor abused boys.
