AUSTRALIA
ABC News
One of the country’s most senior church figures, the Anglican Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft, has resigned after admitting he let down survivors of sexual abuse.
Reverend Herft had been Archbishop of Perth since 2005, but stood aside in October this year to “focus my attention on the royal commission’s ongoing inquiry into the Diocese of Newcastle”.
He gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in August, and finished his testimony with an apology to the people of Newcastle, where he served as bishop between 1993 and 2005.
“I let them down badly.
“[I have] let down the survivors in a way that remorse itself is a very poor emotion to express.”
Archbishop Herft thanked the royal commission for holding him “personally accountable” during the hearing, which stretched over two weeks in the New South Wales city.
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