jQuery Slider

You are here

Archbishop Welby asks Lord Carey to consider his position as assistant bishop over Ball abuse case

Archbishop Welby asks Lord Carey to consider his position as assistant bishop over Ball abuse case
Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who has received a letter from Justin Welby asking him to consider his position as an honorary assistant bishop in Oxford

By James Macintyre
CHRISTIAN TODAY
https://www.christiantoday.com/
June 22, 2017

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has written to his predecessor George Carey asking him to consider his position as an honorary assistant bishop in Oxford over criticism of his conduct in the case of the former bishop and convicted abuser Peter Ball.

The letter was written ahead of publication today of a damning report into the handling of Ball's case by the respected former social worker Dame Moira Gibb, who concluded that the Church of England 'colluded' in abuse by Ball.

At a press conference with Dame Moira launching the independent report today, Peter Hancock, the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the lead bishop on safeguarding in the Church, confirmed that Archbishop Welby had 'written directly' to Lord Carey asking him 'carefully' to consider his position.

Bishop Hancock said that 'this is now a matter for Lord Carey and the Bishop of Oxford' who have been having conversations on the telephone and are set to meet in the next two days.

Steven Croft, the Bishop of Oxford, said in a statement: 'With reference to the criticism of former Archbishop George Carey in the report, the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to Lord Carey and asked him to carefully consider his position as honorary Assistant Bishop. As I hold responsibility for granting him a licence to enable him to carry out his duties, Archbishop Justin has asked Lord Carey to talk to me and we have agreed to meet in the coming days for that conversation. In the meantime he has voluntarily agreed to step back from public ministry.'

There was no further comment from Lambeth Palace or, at the time of writing, from Lord Carey.

Receiving the report on behalf of the Church, Bishop Hancock said: 'I am truly sorry that as a Church we failed the survivors of Peter Ball; having read the report I am appalled and disturbed by its contents; as Dame Moira says...we colluded, we failed to act and protect those who came forward for help. There are no excuses. We accept all the recommendations and we are working to action them.'

Bishop Hancock added that for the survivors, 'it may feel like this is all too late'. He said that he is aware from his meetings with survivors they 'live with the effects of this abuse for their whole life'.

Bishop Croft added: 'I want to give my heartfelt apologies to the survivors of Peter Ball's abuse. The Church of England has let them down by failing to act on the reports of his actions and there are no excuses for this.

'We must now act on the recommendations put forward by Dame Moira Gibb, and all bishops must demonstrate our accountability for making sure everyone in our church is kept safe. The church set up the National Safeguarding Team in 2015 and since then we have had a range of policies and training alongside new legislation covering clergy and other church officers and their responsibility to protect people.'

*****

MY STORY WAS POSTED LATE LAST NIGHT BEFORE THE STORY BROKE IN ENGLAND. I WAS ASKED TO TAKE IT DOWN AND DID SO. I AM NOW REPOSTING IT.

Justin Welby calls on George Carey to resign as Assistant Bishop of Oxford over Ball Affair

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
June 21, 2017

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called on the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey to resign as Assistant Bishop in Oxford over allegations that he knew about Bishop Peter Ball's sexual activities with young boys and failed to act on the information.

Ball, the former Bishop of Lewes, in the Diocese of Chichester, was jailed for abusing 19 young men after being identified by an individual, Neil Todd, who first complained in 1993, about the horrific sexual and sadistic abuse he had suffered at the hands of Ball.

The Church of England went into cover-up overdrive. Leading establishment figures in the nation, including senior clergy, colluded to protect Bishop Ball. A BBC report said that "another person in the church who helped one of Ball's victims tried to raise concerns with 13 different bishops who appeared to take no action." It was only through the heroic persistence of priests like the Rev. Graham Sawyer, one of Ball's victims, that Ball was sentenced in October 2015 to 32 months in prison for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men between 1977 and 1992.

At the time of Ball's arrest Lord Carey admitted he deserved "explicit criticism" over his handling of the ex-bishop's sex abuse.

Lord Carey, was a friend of Ball's. "Clearly the Church didn't handle it well and Lord Carey was naive in trusting Peter Ball. The acknowledgment now is he wasn't doing the Christian thing by the victims of Ball. He would accept he didn't discharge the pastoral duties to the victims very well," according to one newspaper report.

However, the Church of England has been fraught with other "false accusation" cases recently brought against bishops for failing in their duties in which proper support was found to be lacking for the bishop in the firing line. These have not been handled well by church authorities. Carey could hardly be accused of being the first accused of not doing due diligence and also seems like others to be being hung out to dry. "It seems the church is running scared of any possible guilt by association rather than offering pastoral support for those who have been duped by others", according to one source.

The deeper question is, of what or whom is Justin Welby afraid in seeking the removal of Carey from what is essentially an honorary position?

"There was a knee jerk reaction from Lambeth in standing the Very Rev Robert Key down as Dean of Jersey when questions were raised about his handling of a matter. That was actually beyond his pay grade because the Dean of Jersey is a crown appointment. Robert Key was eventually completely exonerated and reinstated but not after a lot of grief," a source told VOL.

The deeper question is, "Whose back is being covered?" Is Lord Carey being made a scapegoat for someone else?

END

Subscribe
Get a bi-weekly summary of Anglican news from around the world.
comments powered by Disqus
Trinity School for Ministry
Go To Top