THIS has been a protracted 12-year battle for the reality and accountability. It has taken that long for the C of E to confront the horror of the abuse, described because the worst within the history of the C of E. And in all that period, until this week, not one person had been held to account.
[The Archbishop of Canterbury] brought this upon himself. The refusal to fulfill [survivors], the “inaccurate assertions” (as Keith Makin describes his untruths), and the attempts to distance himself from Smyth have made Welby the lightning rod for our anger. If he had grasped this firmly in 2017, this might have played out very otherwise. If he had grasped this properly in 2013, the suicide attempt on Christmas Day wouldn’t have happened, and young men in Cape Town would have escaped abuse.
He has steadfastly refused to fulfill us: even last week’s announcement was inaccurate. The victims I’m near were offered a single Zoom in 2021. I actually have never been offered a face-to-face meeting.
It is important that Welby shouldn’t be made a scapegoat. Myriad people had some knowledge of the abuse from 1982, and senior, senior people from 2013. The indisputable fact that Smyth was not delivered to justice should haunt their consciences. Many persons are criticised within the Makin review, they usually too have to be held to account.
It is evident from the Makin review that the NST, so far, has only asked if those criticised are a current safeguarding risk. The Church has to decided whether a failure over a disclosure of abuse is a disciplinary offence or not. If so, there must be a raft of CDMs launched on the back of the Makin review. If NST don’t launch those, I’ll.
“Graham” is a survivor of John Smyth’s abuse.
