In a gesture as spectacular as it was unexpected, the head of the Church of England, Dr Justin Welby, presented his resignation on Tuesday, November 12. A decision taken a week after the revelation, in an independent report, of the mismanagement by the Anglican Church of the situation of a layman who was guilty of sexual assault on children for more than forty years. Justin Welby, who is also the primate of 85 million Anglicans around the world, is accused of not having reported these facts to the authorities in 2013, even though he was aware of them. We can rightly say that this decision comes very late, and above all that it comes, once again, following a report revealing very old facts…
However, Dr. Welby’s resignation is also a strong and clear signal sent to all heads of institutions and opinion leaders on this planet. This is even more true of religious leaders, whose followers often expect them to help them distinguish right from wrong. A moral magisterium which goes hand in hand with a responsibility: that of knowing how to recognize one’s errors and to withdraw when the situation requires it. Faced with the tragedies of sexual violence which so often strike their institutions, believers expect them to set an unfailing example. In the name of respect for their own institution, their faith in God, and the victims.
