Archbishop tells child abuse inquiry he is ‘ashamed’ of Church

The Most Rev Justin Welby told the hearing that the last three weeks of evidence relating to child sexual abuse in the Church has horrified him.

Asked what he had learned from the hearings, Mr Welby paused and appeared to be fighting tears as he said: “I have learned to be ashamed again, in the past three weeks.

“You can’t read the transcripts, you can’t read the evidence statements, without being moved – at least you shouldn’t be able to.

“And the Church does wonderful wonderful things, you know, across the country, extraordinary things.

“The most stressful job in the Church is to be a parish priest, and to be a good parish priest.

“And that a small minority have betrayed that is horrifying.

“I don’t think I was ever complacent at any point. I hate this too much to be complacent.”

He added: “I want to put on record again – I don’t know how to express it adequately – how appalled I am and how ashamed I am of the Church for what it did to those who are survivors and are coping with this.

“The apologies are fine, but you have got to find ways of making it different and we have got to do it as soon as possible.”

Earlier, the Archbishop said that meeting victims reading their statements had been “horrifying”.

He told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that while the perpetrators may be forgiven, they could never be trusted again.