UNITED KINGDOM
The Sunday Times
Tim Wood and Jon Ungoed-Thomas Published: 26 October 2014
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted child abuse has been “rampant” in British institutions and that the church’s failure to “face the misdeeds of those in its service” has been “inexcusable”.
In his most frank comments yet on historic child abuse, Justin Welby admits there is a “very significant legacy of unacknowledged cases” in the Church of England.
His comments are in a private letter to Marilyn Hawes, whose three sons were allegedly groomed and abused by a Church of England headmaster.
She wrote to the archbishop after receiving what she regarded as a cursory two-paragraph reply from an official to a letter in which she said the experience had resulted in her losing faith in the church community.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.