UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Mail
Child abuse ‘rampant’ in British institutions, says Archbishop of Canterbury as he apologises for ‘significant legacy of unacknowledged cases’ in the Church of England
By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE
26 October 2014
Child abuse has been ‘rampant’ in the Church of England and other British institutions, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
Justin Welby also said there is a ‘significant legacy’ of cases of child abuse within the church which have been ignored and that its failure to hold abusers to account is ‘inexcusable’.
Archbishop Welby made the admissions in a private letter to a mother of three boys who were abused at a Church of England school, reports Exaro, the investigative website.
Writing to a Hertfordshire mother whose sons were groomed and sexually abused by their headmaster, Welby apologised for the church’s failure to root out peadophiles.
‘I read your story with the same deep sense of sadness and dismay that I have felt on far too many other, similar accounts.
‘The betrayal of Christ in such behaviour is complete; the church’s failure to face the misdeeds of those in its service is inexcusable.
‘I can only apologise for what happened then, and for what has happened now, most sincerely and with deep sorrow.
‘It is now clear that in a huge number of institutions and localities, the abuse of children and vulnerable adults has been rampant.
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