The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published its final report on 20 October 2022.
The Church of England’s initial responses were reported here.
Today, the National Safeguarding Steering Group, the House of Bishops and the Archbishops’ Council have published a joint response to recommendations in relation to the safeguarding work of the Church of England. It’s a six-page PDF, available here. The covering press release is over here.
Following the October report publication, there was also a response from the (then new) National Safeguarding Director, reported here.
An earlier report relating to the Seal of the Confessional, was reported in this further roundup of responses.
I’m not sure the Church of England’s response to Recommendation 13 (Mandatory Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse) is a good look. IICSA is clear (para 109): “neither the freedom of religion or belief nor the rights of parents with regard to the education of their children can ever justify the ill-treatment of children or prevent governmental authorities from taking measures necessary to protect children from harm. The Inquiry therefore considers that mandatory reporting as set out in this report should be an absolute obligation; it should not be subject to exceptions based on relationships of confidentiality, religious or otherwise.” I… Read more »
Susannah, in regard to the Confessional, I share with you a story from my Anglican days. I remember when I was living in the West Midlands, In South Staffordshire as part of a USPG Root Group Community and involved in a Local Anglo Catholic Parish. One evening I went to a Church Prayer and discussion Group at at a Churchwarden’s House and during the discussion part of the meeting this Churchwarden asked the Parish Priest “Father what would you do if someone came to you for Confession and confessed they had Committed Murder?” This Priest replied, he would stop the… Read more »
This scenario occurred in Victorian Brighton when its famous Anglo-Catholic vicar, Fr Arthur Wagner (Brighton still has several churches which he founded – St Bartholomew’s being one of them) once heard a woman’s confession of a crime. The crime clearly was not murder. He persuaded her to report it to the police and, as I recall, accompanied her to the police station. In the subsequent criminal trial, Fr Wagner was called as a witness but refused to break the seal of the confessional. He was dismissed by the judge who called him a “fool” (or something similar) but, significantly, was… Read more »
That was the Constance Kent case, and the crime was indeed murder. Fr Wagner heard a sacramental confession of murder from Constance Kent who had already decided to go to the police, and he assisted her to do so. He refused to divulge any details of her confession to him, but it made no difference as she had already confessed to police and entered a guilty plea at the trial. To complicate matters, there was doubt as to whether her confession was true or whether she was shielding another member of the family whom she knew to be guilty. However,… Read more »
In my Len Martin football pools/classified voice:
“Blackburn 102 – 2 IICSA”.
I think this tells us everything about the Church of England’s priorities and is itself sufficient evidence as to why the Church cannot be trusted with the supervision of safeguarding. Ever. Again.
At a recent safeguarding refresher course at which there were about 20 clerics, it was evident that with one or two exceptions they could not or would not imagine what it must be like to be on the receiving end of abuse. Is this because they have been institutionalised? Or merely a failure of imagination? “Healing the unimaginable” by Alison Miller is a shocking read, even just dipping into it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healing-Unimaginable-Treating-Ritual-Control/dp/1855758822
Would they or could they not imagine it, or did they not wish to talk about what they were being asked to imagine?