Shame on George Carey

There are many grey areas in this safeguarding saga. So it is nice when some black and white emerges. It is surely impossible for anyone to doubt the culpability of George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who resigned his priestly orders yesterday.

First, the grey areas. It is difficult to say whether a bishop or archbishop should resign for failing to ensure that there are no dodgy priests operating in his or her diocese. On paper, a bishop should ensure that none of the priests whom he or she oversees are dodgy, and remove any who are. But bishops cannot simply fire priests, even if they have severe doubts about them.

Stephen Cottrell, while bishop of Chelmsford, knew the priest David Tudor, accused of historic sexual abuse, but felt that he was powerless to act against him until fresh complaints were made in 2019. In theory, he should have thrown out the rulebook and ensured the priest’s exclusion before then.