Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as he listens to debate at the General Synod in London on Feb. 13, 2017.Alastair Grant/The Associated Press
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned amid allegations he did little to stop a Canadian-born church leader from abusing as many as 130 boys in Britain and Africa over four decades.
Bishop Welby announced his resignation on Tuesday after insisting for days that he would not step down. Pressure had been building ever since the publication last week of an internal investigation by the church into the conduct of John Smyth, who held senior roles in a church-run camp for boys.
The investigation “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth,” said Bishop Welby, who was appointed archbishop by Queen Elizabeth in 2013. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury serves as the head of the Church of England and is the ceremonial leader of the Anglican Communion, which includes the Anglican Church of Canada. The archbishop is also a member of the British House of Lords and performs several official duties. Bishop Welby presided over the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 and crowned her successor, King Charles, last year.
The archbishop is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister after a lengthy selection process that involves a committee of church leaders and lay people. That process is expected to begin in a few months with a nationwide consultation asking people what they want from the next archbishop.
Mr. Smyth was born in Calgary in 1941 into a strict evangelical family; he moved to England with his parents and siblings as a child. He studied law at the University of Cambridge and became a prominent lawyer in London as well as a church leader. From 1970 to the early 1980s, he worked at a church-run summer camp that was designed to mould young boys from elite boarding schools such as Winchester College.
The investigation, led by Keith Makin, a former director of social services in England, found that Mr. Smyth groomed boys and administered relentless lashings, claiming they needed to be cleansed of their sins.
“The abuse at the hands of John Smyth was prolific and abhorrent. Words cannot adequately describe the horror of what transpired,” Mr. Makin wrote.
Some of the victims told the investigators that they were given hundreds of lashes at a time by Mr. Smyth at his home. “Beatings of 100 strokes for masturbation, 400 for pride and one of 800 strokes for some undisclosed ‘fall’ are recorded,” the report said.
A church investigation in 1982 confirmed much of the abuse. But instead of taking action, church leaders covered up the findings, and Mr. Smyth relocated to Zimbabwe and later South Africa, where he abused more boys. He died in 2018 in Cape Town at the age of 77.
Mr. Makin said there was evidence that Mr. Smyth abused at least 30 boys in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa, and possibly as many as 130 in total including some members of his family.
Many of the victims still suffer from trauma and have difficulty holding a job and maintaining relationships. Several have attempted suicide, the report said.
Mr. Makin said that Bishop Welby met Mr. Smyth several times while volunteering at summer camps between 1975 and 1979, and that he donated money to Mr. Smyth’s ministry in Zimbabwe. Bishop Welby was also told about the abuse in 2013 but did not call in the police.
After the report was published last week, Bishop Welby initially said he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013,″ and resisted calls to step down.
On Tuesday he said that when he was told about the allegations in 2013, “I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.” He added that he hoped his resignation “makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church.”
One of Mr. Smyth’s victims, Richard Gittins, praised Bishop Welby for stepping down. “It shows that he genuinely was sorry about not making sure the report went to the police,” Mr. Gittins told the Daily Telegraph.
Nicole Fritz, a South African human-rights lawyer, noted that Mr. Smyth had portrayed himself as a moral campaigner and had been closely involved in court cases in South Africa to oppose same-sex marriages and limit the abortion rights of women.
“The Makin review offers only severely compromised justice to his U.K. victims. Will those in Southern Africa get even that?” she asked in a social-media post on Tuesday.
With reports from Geoffrey York in Johannesburg