ENGLAND
The Guardian
September 30, 2017
By Jamie Doward and Harriet Sherwood
Archbishop of Canterbury faces backlash after claiming broadcaster showed less integrity than church in tackling scandal
The Church of England and the BBC engaged in an extraordinary war of words on Saturday over their responses to sex abuse scandals within their ranks.
The dispute was prompted by criticism of the BBC levelled by Justin Welby for its response to the Jimmy Savile crisis. The archbishop of Canterbury said the BBC had not shown the same integrity over accusations of child abuse that the Catholic and Anglican churches had.
The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, Martin Bashir, responded by listing cases of alleged sex abuse within the Anglican church, adding that Welby’s comments reminded him of the passage in the gospel of St John in which Christ says “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”.
Survivors of sexual abuse by CoE clerics accused Welby of “breathtaking hypocrisy” after his criticism of the way the BBC dealt with the many cases of abuse carried out by Savile.
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