UNITED KINGDOM
TheTablet
09 July 2014 12:07 by Ruth Gledhill
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, pledged their full backing for the new public enquiry into the handling of child abuse allegations by public institutions.
The inquiry’s chairwoman, Baroness Butler-Sloss, the retired senior judge who is former president of the family division of the high court, has wide experience in the field. She was vice-chairwoman of the Cumberlege Commission, which reported on Catholic Church safeguarding policies in 2007. She also chaired a review of historic child sex abuse problems in the Church of England’s Chichester diocese, as a result of which a clergyman was convicted in 2008.
At the Church of England’s General Synod in York this weekend, survivors of sexual abuse by ministers and clergy will meet the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The eight members of Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS) will be call on the archbishop for a “complete change of culture and behaviour in the Church”.
The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, who is chairman of the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Committee, said he believed the country had a problem with this kind of abuse and said it was important that victims had their stories heard and received justice.
“We’re really pleased there’s been quite a shift and that an inquiry is now taking place,” he told the Press Association.
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