Covering up the cover-up

It’s not the scandal that does the damage, they say, but the cover-up. What happens if the cover-up is itself covered up? This is the question the Church of England must face with the publication of an extraordinary report into the occasion, eight years ago, when it gave itself a pass mark on the issue of sexual abuse. The report then published, prompted by scandals earlier in the decade, was meant to measure the extent of sexual abuse known to the church. It claimed there were only 13 cases in 30 years that had not been dealt with properly.

Now Peter Ball, a former bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester, has been jailed for 32 months for indecent assault, while Lord Carey, who as archbishop of Canterbury suppressed evidence against him, has been barred from working as a priest in retirement.

The Ball case is only the most visible of what is now obviously a load of past cases. So it is disappointing the church has produced another report that appears to argue that the original clean bill of health was the product of innocent misunderstandings. Nearly 50 lost cases were sent in for consideration from the diocese of Chichester alone.

The compilers of the original report whittled these down to 13 for the whole country. It is difficult to understand how Sir Roger Singleton could be confident there was no massaging of the figures. London, June 28