A former editor writes in the Daily Telegraph
John Smyth QC was a sadist. In the Seventies and Eighties, he perverted his power as a leading Christian evangelical to win the trust of unhappy teenage youths and then beat them mercilessly. He claimed to be purifying them for Jesus. I have written about their ordeal in these pages.
Far too late – and after Smyth’s death in 2018 – the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team launched an inquiry. At the time, Smyth’s evil deeds were covered up. In life, he always managed to escape prosecution. The Smyth story needs to be officially told.
But the process is weird. In June, Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, received a letter from the Bishop of Oxford, in whose diocese he lives, removing his “Permission to Officiate” (PTO). The bishop said he was acting on behalf of the Smyth inquiry.
Without PTO, no clergyman is allowed to perform his religious duties, such as preaching or administering the sacraments. Its removal is a sign of disgrace. For a former archbishop, who has a worldwide public reputation, it is devastating.
Obviously, not even an archbishop should be above inquiry. But what is so extraordinary is that Lord Carey has not been accused of anything (indeed, it is specifically stated that he has not been accused of any child abuse). When Carey was head of Trinity theological college in Bristol in the Eighties, John Smyth was a mature student for a single term. He may – he is not sure – have met Smyth then. It is alleged that he is mentioned in a couple of contemporary letters as having been informed about the Smyth case, but the evidence of that has not been made known to him.
Last week, despite legal representations, the Church authorities refused to restore Lord Carey’s PTO. The effect is like that of libel. The doctrines of “safeguarding” seem not to safeguard the principles of natural justice.
This injustice replicates the dreadful mistake the Church made when it uncritically accepted abuse allegations against the long dead Bishop of Chichester, George Bell. It later admitted that its processes had been all wrong; yet it is repeating them now.
Even odder is the fact that the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has himself been accused of covering up information against Smyth at the time. As I have written before, these allegations seem weak – he was barely out of university then – but at least it is true that he did know Smyth, which Lord Carey did not. Yet no one has attempted to remove Justin Welby’s PTO. What an unholy mess.
CNI Notes –
Charles Moore is a former editor of the Daily Telegraph
BBC News report – 18 June 2020
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has had his permission to officiate as a priest revoked.
[[] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-53086234 ]
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