… I am deeply ashamed that the Church was not vigilant enough to ensure that these things did not happen, failing both to watch and to act, where children were at serious risk.
Any act of abuse committed by someone in a position of authority in the Church is a matter for shame and requires deep repentance. We are called as individuals and corporately to a higher standard and to show God’s love and care as revealed in Jesus Christ. Those who trusted us in this only to be grievously wounded deserve not only our wholehearted apology but also the assurance we will keep a watchful eagle’s eye and act swiftly.
Those I have spoken to have expressed clearly that it is important for them to know whether new policies and procedures adopted after 2004 have created a new culture in the Church of England as a whole, which will ensure that all God’s children are protected. Those concerns are reflected in the report’s recommendations.
I commissioned an independent judge-led inquiry on 13th July 2013. The Judge was asked to investigate how the Church responded to the allegations made in 1999 and 2003/04 that Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, had abused a child in the 1960s when he was headmaster of a school in the Diocese of North Queensland, Australia and also a Manchester choirboy in the 1980s when he was the Dean of Manchester.
In its conclusions the Inquiry has identified systemic failures in the Church’s failing to implement or follow its own procedures and guidelines on the reporting of incidents…