Today my colleague Tim Wood reveals the full details of a recent private letter from Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to Marilyn Hawes,the Hertfordshire mother of three boys sexually abused at a Church of England school more than a decade ago.
The contents will confirm what everybody connected with following the child sexual abuse scandal as it has been developing, knows – that child sexual abuse has been rampant, as he puts it, across institutions in Britain.
As Tim discloses in his article on the Exaro website and in the Sunday Times the Archbishop – who is known to see this as a major problem in society – does not mince his words.
“It is now clear that in a huge number of institutions and localities, the abuse of children and vulnerable adults has been rampant. That is not in any way mitigation or excuse for the church, but is why I have been, with Paul Butler,( The Bishop of Durham) pushing for the public inquiry that the government has promised.”
“It is also clear that there is a very significant legacy of unacknowledged cases in the Church of England. We are taking all necessary steps to face these.”
The mother’s tale is very familiar to many – first denial, then being shunned, and then receiving a brush off at the top of the Church of England until now. At least the perpetrator in this case, a music teacher, was caught and jailed.
The tragedy of this case comes as Theresa May, the home secretary, has reluctantly finally agreed to set up an overarching child sex abuse inquiry into historic and current abuse.
Unfortunately just as something good was about to happen – after heroic efforts by MPs of almost all parties – the inquiry has now become mired in a row over the appointment of its chair, Fiona Woolf, the Mayor of the City of London. Her links with Leon Brittan, who is likely to be one of the witnesses because of documents detailing VIP abuse disappearing in the past and under his watch as home secretary in the 1980s, appear not to have been properly investigated.
Normally people could celebrate the government tasking some action to find out what has been a hidden scandal in this country for decades. But they can’t until this mess over the inquiry is sorted out.
Westminster Confidential 
Reblogged this on Thinking Out Loud.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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The government are scratching their unelected heads over who to appoint as another suitable Chair, now that Woolf has been found to be “part of the Establishment” or very close to it, They know as time goes on and they do nothing the public wont let them get away with that, and now this letter by Welby shows even the Church of England realises that the truth must come out.
Gone are the days of covering up it seems, hopefully for the childrens’ sakes.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating and commented:
The government are scratching their unelected heads over who to appoint as another suitable Chair, now that Woolf has been found to be “part of the Establishment” or very close to it, They know as time goes on and they do nothing the public wont let them get away with that, and now this letter by Welby shows even the Church of England realises that the truth must come out.
Gone are the days of covering up it seems, hopefully for the childrens’ sakes.
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Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
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Dear Archbishop
I believe you are sincere but you need to go further and admit your church knew and requires the resignation of everyone who knew, protected and in so doing allowed perpetrators to continue to commit crimes . You are in a good position to ask the head of your church and as you know she is immune from prosecution (unusual for heads of state these days) but like USA presidents has the power to pardon the most evil of wrong doing, but while in the USA this is often party political and personal favour it is exercise in the UK when in the interests of the state such as re securing peace relative peace in Northern Ireland.
As you know while confessions, admissions, regrets, apologies usually help perpetrators more than victims it is only when the institutions, bodies, organisations make fundamental and lasting changes is there any prospect of a problem being effectively sorted and of course that change will only come about from within. When half your Bishops and clergy are mothers then there is some hope of problems like crimes of violence including sex. against children, vulnerable adults especially women, wives and mothers being addressed… until new generations who lack a sense of their factual history continue to repeat the mistakes of their forebears
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