UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today
James Macintyre 22 June 2017
The Church of England ‘colluded’ with the former bishop Peter Ball over his abuse of young boys and men, a new independent report into Ball’s case states.
The report, Abuse of Faith by the respected former social worker Dame Moira Gibb is damning of the Church’s handling of the 84-year-old former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, who was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 after admitting a string of historical sex offences against 18 teenagers and young men.
The report has led to apologies from two former Archbishops of Canterbury, George Carey and Rowan Williams, over how they handled the allegations against Ball.
Following Ball’s conviction, Justin Welby, the current Archbishop of Canterbury commissioned the report into Ball, who was released from jail in February after serving 16 months.
‘This report considers the serious sexual wrongdoing of Peter Ball…who abused many boys and men over a period of twenty years or more. That is shocking in itself but it is compounded by the failure of the Church to respond appropriately to his misconduct, again over a period of many years,’ Dame Moira writes in the report’s foreword.
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