Archbishop of Canterbury’s resignation ‘won’t fix the problem’, says Bishop of Dover on church abuse scandal

We spoke to the Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin from Canterbury.

Cathy Newman: I wondered if you could tell me whether you think that Justin Welby made the right decision today.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin: It is difficult to say whether he made the right decision because I want to begin by saying how shocked and saddened I am at the level of abuse that took place, and the lack of response then. I am sure that we would have seen something completely different were that to have happened today, I am certain of that. Our archbishop decided, having weighed everything up, that it was right for him to resign. And I must accept that he has come to that decision.

Cathy Newman: It sounds like you’re not wholly clear that he should have resigned, given that there were many failings by many people.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin: There were many failings, indeed, by many people. I think what you hear me saying really is that resignation, having his resignation or indeed any other resignation, is not going to resolve the problem. It is not going to fix the problem either. And I think that if we are really courageous and want to address the issues that contributed to the kind of abuse that we have seen in the past and may likely see in the future, then we have to go to the root of the problem. And I don’t think a resignation here or there…

Cathy Newman: You say it’s not going to help, but the victims have been begging for the church to take responsibility for this and they want accountability. So they welcome Justin Welby’s resignation, but they also say, look at what we’ve just heard just a minute ago from the former Bishop of Ely, now promoted to Bishop of Lincoln. They say that he should go too, because he knew and didn’t do enough.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin: I do understand that the survivors are saying ‘nothing but a resignation will help us to feel that justice is done’. I understand from their perspective what they are saying. What I am saying is, if we are truly seeking to have something different going forward, then we have to address the root of the problem. The other aspect of this for me, Archbishop Justin…

Cathy Newman: How do you do that? How do you reform that?

Rose Hudson-Wilkin: How we reform that? I think, for me, at the heart of this problem is the impoverished interpretation of scriptures that takes a kind of literalism when we look at biblical scriptures. That for me is part of the problem and unless we courageously address that, we are likely in the future to still find that we have a problem with abuse by people who interpret the Bible literally and say ‘God has spoken to me and God wants me to do that’. Or, indeed, to say ‘we hold the confessional seal as the highest order, and so we will not tell if somebody confesses something to us’. That’s at the heart of the problem.

Cathy Newman: But Bishop Rose, if the church is to have any hope of changing society in the way you describe and changing the interpretation of the Bible, surely it has to change itself first and and look to its own sin, to use your terminology.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin: Absolutely. And that is what I’m saying. If we are really going to see any difference, it is not just simply going to come about because an archbishop resigns. We have to go to the root of the problem.

Cathy Newman: Just briefly, have you spoken to the Archbishop of Canterbury today? What is his frame of mind?

Rose Hudson-Wilkin: No, I have not spoken to him, but I can imagine the pain that he is feeling. Because in the past, this is the archbishop who has done so much in terms of bringing the church to this point, in taking safeguarding seriously. And so I can understand the sadness that he feels for those who have been abused. He is a decent man, and I believe that he feels pain and sadness for those who have been abused, and pain and sadness for a church that keeps a stranglehold, as it were, on scriptures in a way that is damaging to those who are most vulnerable in our society.