UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus
Jean Calder / Wednesday 10 February 2016
I’VE been saddened to see so many people rush to defend the reputation of Bishop George Bell – and by implication suggest the elderly woman who accused him of child sexual abuse is a liar.
The Church of England has accepted that the abuse took place and given its previous determination to keep abuse by its clergy under wraps, I suspect the evidence is compelling. I was pleased that Bishop Martin Warner apologised and defended the alleged victim from criticism.
In respect of prominent abusers, the modern Church of England has done better than the Church of Rome. Eric Gill, the famous artist and Roman Catholic adult convert was the son of a Church of England clergyman, also from Chichester.
Over many years, Gill sexually abused his sisters, servants and then his daughters, socially isolating the girls while using them as models for semi-erotic religious art. The abuse is catalogued in his own diaries but if you visit the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral, where his famous Stations of the Cross take pride of place and are publicised in the cathedral shop, there’s no mention of his history or his victims’ exploitation.
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.