Why has the Archbishop of Canterbury had to resign?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned over allegations - some of which he has accepted - that he failed to act against a prolific and sadistic paedophile, John Smyth, who had been associated with the Church of England for decades. A number of Welby’s more senior colleagues have openly called for him to stand down, while others remained silent, and the general unease has become deafening.

- SEAN O'GRADY

A petition to remove him from his post – though strictly, he probably had absolute security of tenure – attracted more than 10,000 signatures. For an Anglican primate to quit in such circumstances is unprecedented – but also, it seems, inevitable...

What’s it all about?

The John Smyth scandal is an extremely distressing and complicated one, but as far as Welby is concerned, the matter turns on two points identified in an independent report by Keith Makin, published last week.

Makin is a former director of Social Services, was the chief executive of an independent childcare company, and has much experience in abuse inquiries. He concludes that Smyth, who died in 2018 aged 77, had clearly been perpetrating abuse across England and in Africa, at schools and Christian camps, from 1978 until around the 2000s. By the 2010s at the latest, the Church knew all about his activities, and he was named by Channel 4 in 2017.

The first issue that caused concern is that Welby knew Smyth long ago, before he became archbishop, but did nothing about him. Welby had been aware of Smyth when he volunteered at Christian holiday camps in Dorset, for example: “As I recall him, he was a charming, delightful, very clever, brilliant speaker. I wasn’t a close friend of his, I wasn’t in his inner circle or in the inner circle of the leadership of the camp, far from it.”