Updated Friday 7 September
The BBC has several reports:
Archbishop of Canterbury condemns child abuse failings
Colin Campbell Report on Diocese of Chichester child abuse failures
Robert Pigott Archbishop Williams criticises child abuse failings
Daily Mail Steve Doughty Archbishop of Canterbury apologises after Church report accuses clergy of ‘disastrous’ failure to protect children from paedophile priests
Guardian David Batty Child sex abuse inquiry damns Chichester church’s local safeguarding
Independent Charlie Cooper Archbishop sorry for child abuse failings
ITV News Archbishop appeals for abuse victims to come forward
Argus Anna Roberts Archbishop of Canterbury vows to protect Sussex victims of abuse
Brighton and Hove News Archbishop of Canterbury criticises local failures to protect children from paedophile priests
Eastbourne Herald Church rocked by damning report into child protection failures
Telegraph Never be alone with children, clergy told
Worthing Herald New measures to tackle child abuse in Diocese of Chichester
Updates
Nick Baines has written A Shame to England.
Colin Coward has written The Chichester report demonstrates the need for radical change in the whole Church of England.
The comprehensive Church Times report by Ed Thornton is now available without subscription: Report slams Chichester over child safeguarding.
I have yet to read all of this, but, from what I have gleaned thus far there is no sense yet that we have found out all that is yet to be found out. Comments about “tip of the iceberg” are extremely concerning. My question is: is this diocese so very different from all others that there was a uniquely concerning set of circumstances created in Chichester? Did it become a mecca for paedophile clergy because of its known laxity? And if not, then are there a load more revelations to come about abuse, and, just as worryingly, about diocesan… Read more »
Jeremy,
I couldn’t have put it better!
Jeremy asks “Did it become a mecca for paedophile clergy because of its known laxity?” While I don’t think we can be complacent about it, it is a known feature of serial child sex offenders that they seek each other out, network and pass around information about accessing children or material about children. Therefore the information that a particular organisation is lax about child protection will be passed around. This is what makes objections by Christians ‘on principle’ to having routine child protection checks so dangerous. Of course any system of checking will have limitations, but the fact that it… Read more »
One of the really sad things about all of this, is that, almost inevitably, paedophilia will be connected in the minds of heterosexuals with the phenomenon of homosexuality. What has to be sorted out is the difference between the two.