LONDON – Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found he failed to promptly report to police serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps. as he realized.

Pressure on Welby had been mounting since Thursday, when the archbishop’s refusal to accept responsibility for failing to report abuse in England and Africa in 2013 sparked anger at the highest levels of the church over a lack of accountability. On Tuesday afternoon, Welby acknowledged the mistake.

“It is clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby said in a statement announcing his resignation. “I believe it is in the interests of the Church of England, which I love and have the honor to serve, to step aside.”

Welby’s resignation will have repercussions around the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries, including the Episcopal Church in the United States. Although each national church has its own leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury is considered first among equals.

Welby, a former oil executive who left the industry in 1989 to train for the priesthood, was a controversial figure before the scandal. A skilled mediator who worked to resolve conflicts in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, he sought to unite the Anglican Communion, which was torn by sharply divergent views on issues such as gay rights and the place of women in the church.

The Church of England on Thursday announced the results of an independent investigation into prominent barrister John Smyth, who the report said had sexually, psychologically and physically abused around 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 boys and young men in Africa since the 1970s . His death in 2018.

The Makin Review’s 251-page report concluded Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, shortly after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. The investigation found that had he done this Smyth could have been stopped sooner and many victims could have been spared the abuse.

Welby said he did not notify law enforcement about the harassment because he was incorrectly told police were already investigating. Still, he took responsibility for not pursuing the allegations as “energetically” as they should have been.

As late as Monday, Welby’s office announced that he had decided not to resign, despite expressing “horror at the scale of John Smyth’s appalling abuse.”

Helen-Ann Hartley, bishop of Newcastle, said Welby’s stance had become “untenable” after some members of the General Synod, the national assembly of the Church of England, launched a petition calling for him to resign because he had “lost trust”. his clergy.”

But the strongest reaction came from Smyth’s victims. Andrew Morse, who was beaten repeatedly by Smyth over five years, said the resignation was a chance for Welby to begin repairing the damage caused by the church’s broader handling of historical abuse cases.

“I believe this is an opportunity for him to resign,” Morse told the BBC before Welby resigned.

Welby’s resignation took place against the background of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found that respect for the authority of priests, taboos surrounding discussion of sexuality and a culture that gives alleged perpetrators more support than their victims have helped make the Church of England “a place where abusers can go free” took it out. to hide.”

Welby’s supporters argued that he should remain in office because of his role in changing the culture of the church.

Church officials first became aware of Smyth’s abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into complaints about his behavior at Christian summer camps in England. The Makin Review found that those who received this report “engaged in an active cover-up” to prevent the findings from coming to light.

Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984 and later moved to South Africa. The investigation found he abused boys and young men in Zimbabwe and there was evidence in South Africa that the abuse continued until his death in August 2018.

Smyth’s actions were not made public until an investigation by Britain’s Channel 4 television channel in 2017, which led to Hampshire police launching an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and were preparing to extradite him.

Stephen Cherry, dean of the chapel at King’s College Cambridge, said Welby could no longer represent the public.

“There are situations where there is something that someone in a key leadership position, someone like an archbishop, has done, where they have essentially lost their trust, confidence and capacity to do a really great thing, like publicly represent everyone at a particular moment in time. Cherry told the BBC before Welby resigned.

“The pain experienced by the victim community and his history of not listening to people and not responding to people who have been deeply hurt by those in power means that this person can no longer carry the representative role of that office.”

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Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed.