Justin Welby says he 'forgives' John Smyth

I agree Delila, but if someone's to be criticised for what they've said then it's important that that criticism is based on what was said, and not what the papers say was said.

Justin Welby has struck rock bottom in my estimation. How he ever become Archbishop I don’t know? He is a total disgrace.

My lovely godson is a Reverend Canon in the C of E and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. When I see him next I will be telling him of my strong negative feelings about JW and I expect him to be equally strong in his condemnation.

Thank you Fancythat

I can’t put down here just how I feel. Disgusted!

I watched his interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning. He’s a pompous, arrogant man with no self awareness. He needs to fade into obscurity and stay away from tv cameras.

I didnt know whether to call them the 70 or the 72

In Luke 10:1, Jesus appoints "seventy-two others" (or sometimes "seventy") and sends them out in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go, to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick

Fancy that ………Jesus himself had 12 Disciples and 72 others.
Who were they?

I agree with many of these posts.

The point about him being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers - he had a golden opportunity to deal with the whole issue.

Or certainly to delegate.

I am a member of a different denomination.
I always think there is a lost opportunity with delegation.

Jesus himself had 12 Disciples.
And 72 others.
84 in total.

Yes, he did say that Smilelesss, he’s very wordy, but what do fine words amount to when he failed to act when he was in a position to do so?

Everything he says is designed to give a favourable impression of himself. He comes across to me as a shallow man puffed up with his own importance.

I just wish he’d go away.

Welby was complicit. He knew about these offences and put this man in positions of trust where he had access to new victims.

Should be serving time in prison in my opinion.

It is not Justin Welby's place or privilege to forgive this abuser. Only the victims can forgive - but the former Archbishop of Canterbury has even robbed them of that.

He shouldn't be giving interviews at all.. he's still trying to be in the public gaze and once again his ego is evident.. he has never shown any sign of admitting he failed in his duty.. and that is again obvious in this interview where he deflected the question..

When asked during the BBC interview if he would forgive Smyth, what he actually said was this.

"Yes, I think if he was alive and I saw him but it's not me he abused. He's abused the victims and survivors so whether I forgive or not is to a large extent irrelevant". He went on to say that it is more important for the victims to be cared for, and liberated to re build their lives by the church, than to speak about forgiveness.

I just watched some of this interview- the man comes across as utterly charmless and lacking any emotional depth.

It wasn't for him to forgive this pedophile and I felt Welby was just making some sort of vacuous point here, as if it did matter that he forgave this Smyth guy, who only seemed to have caused Welby to lose his job?

I thought Kuensberg was silly to even ask the question, however. because she was not interviewing the people most affected by Smyth's terrible abuses.

She did ask him he come he didn't know what was going on, and Welby replied with something along the lines of 'I had no clue what was going on.' This response reminded me of Welby's mate Paula Vennels when giving her evidence to the Post Office scandal enquiry. It was her job to know, and also Welby's job to know!
What do they think they were there for? That is a rhetorical question. They were there for the pandering to their own vanities, hob nobbing with royalty and the establishment, and ignoring the abuses that were happening to innocent people.
I hope I never ever seee ither of them being courted in this way by the media again, but I won't hold my breath...

I simply cannot see what forgiving John Smyth has to do with Welby. The only thing he can forgive him for, is being the unwitting instrument that caused his resignation.

His answer should have been 'Forgiveness from me does not come into it, forgiveness can only come from his victims.'

Bluebelle is right when she talks of infiltration by by sexual predators, but this applies to all religions, schools, childrens organisation, care services, any group where children and young people are brought together. They will inevitably be the targets for sexual predators.

Until recently I really believe that many of the people running these organisations just did not realise the extent, deviousness and persistence of these predators, that or they were one of them and, as more and more historic abuse has come to light, I can see that it is overwhelming, but if you are in, any profession where your aptitude and judgement is thought by your peers to justify appointing you to a top position, it goes with the job that you either deal witht the problems the job presents you with or you resign - before you fail and let so many wounded and abused people down.

I just find it hard to understand it doesn't seem like justice

My point was that a religion where any kind of evil is forgiven if you have accepted Jesus but not knowing you had to accept Jesus is unforgivable isn't a religion that makes sense Anyone who can accept this I'm not saying they can't

But he didn’t have a lack of awareness he had the awareness but chose not to act on it Iixy
What a blooming plonker a nasty piece of work who seems so self absorbed he can’t even get something as huge as sexual abuse right
C of E, RC makes no difference they are all infiltrated by sexual predators

The Bible informs that God forgives us our sins.

Justin Welby was asked if he would forgive Smyth, Welby said in an interview broadcast on Sunday with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “Yes. I think if he was alive and I saw him, but it’s not me he’s abused.

“He’s abused the victims and survivors. So whether I forgive or not is, to a large extent, irrelevant.”

Why is Welby agreeing to an interview? Can his ego not allow him to live a quiet life out of the public eye?

Watching Justin Welby's
hand-wringing, excruciating display on the news made me very angry indeed! 😠

Forgive him for what ?

How magnanimous of him! I wonder if Smyth’s victims have taken comfort from Welby’s forgiveness?

In his defence he was answering a direct question and did also say that it wasn’t him who had been abused and that his forgiveness is irrelevant.

However I do agree that his lack of awareness is alarming.

I wish he wasn’t being given a voice through the media, he has nothing I wish to hear having badly screwed up his right to a view by his inaction.