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.