The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested this week that the reason the Church of England neglected to take action in a specific sexual misconduct scandal was because the offending bishop, jailed in 2015 for several crimes, was gay.
Williams, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, told an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse that his colleagues who felt “awkward about the traditional closeted attitude” of the Church of England were likely willing to extend “second chances” when it came to Peter Ball, the Telegraph reported Wednesday.
Ball is a former Anglican bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester, who was sent to prison in October 2015 for misconduct in public office and indecent assault against 18 teenagers and young men over the course of a few decades. He was released last year.
Williams noted that church figures did not desire to be viewed as “judgmental about people’s sexual activities” when asked by the lead counsel to the Anglican investigation if attitudes about homosexuality influenced the way Ball was treated.
“[W]e may formally in a disciplinary way disapprove, we may treat them according to…
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