Justin Welby has staked his reputation and legacy on the maintenance of a profound injustice to Bishop George Bell
by Archbishop Cranmer:
There are times when you really, really don’t want to write any kind of response to a contentious issue, no matter how burning it may be, not least because by doing so you will only compound the contention and exacerbate the division or hurt already being felt by the parties involved. But something just gnaws away, and the urge to say something simply won’t go away, so you either lie in bed every night churning the niggles or you plod wearily to your keyboard and hit the first key.
And that first letter may lead to a completely superfluous paragraph which says nothing at all about the contentious matter at hand, and simply becomes a device for stalling; for avoiding the inevitable antagonism which will only elicit further testy Twitter blasts and belligerent counter-blogs full of bile disguised as fraternal enlightenment.
O, God.
Here goes…
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has responded to the eminent historians who criticised his response to the Carlile Report into the Church of England’s handling of the allegation against the late, great Bishop George Bell. The historians considered Archbishop Justin’s claims against George Bell to be “irresponsible and dangerous“, and called on him to retract the ‘cloud’ under which he has placed Bell in order to restore the reputation of the eminent deceased Bishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to do so.
He not only refused; he raised the stakes, saying: “I cannot with integrity rescind my statement made after the publication of Lord Carlile’s review into how the Church handled the Bishop Bell case.”
And with that sentence he has pinned his entire reputation and staked his whole legacy. He cannot now back down, for to do so would evidence a manifest self-misjudgment of character; a certain blindness, if not a total lack of the very integrity which others are already calling into question. “I cannot with integrity rescind my statement” is an expression of the very stuff which sent some of his episcopal forebears to the stake. Justin Welby isn’t going to resile, rescind or retreat on this: he will not recant; there is no surrender. Bishop George Bell was a man of “extraordinary courage and achievement”, but “the Church has a duty to take seriously the allegation made against him”.
There Justin Welby stands; he can do no other.
Read also: Welby’s Will-To-Power: Pride & Ego- Sanity & Sanctity, in the Saga of George Bell. by Gavin Ashenden
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