Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, has had his Permission to Officiate reinstated. His PTO was withdrawn in June by the Bishop of Oxford surrounding the church’s handling of the child sex abuse charges against John Smyth QC.
The announcement of the reinstatement, including a statement by Carey, can be found here. From Carey’s statement:
My PTO was withdrawn last year on June 17th, when the independent Learning Lessons Case Review into the late John Smyth QC referred information comprising two letters to the National Safeguarding Team of the Church of England. The letters gave rise to concerns that, when I was Principal of Trinity College Bristol in 1983/4, I had received a report concerning John Smyth’s evil conduct in the early 1980s without disclosing these concerns to the appropriate authorities. At that time Smyth attended the college for a short period of part-time study.
An NST core group was set up and the conclusion to their investigation was that I had seen the report. They also concluded that as a result of this investigation and further training that I have recently undertaken, they believe I do not pose a safeguarding risk.
I welcome this latter conclusion. However, I respectfully disagree with their judgement. I have no memory at all of John Smyth at Trinity College Bristol.
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This year I have made a report to the NST of a disclosure I received about non recent clerical sexual abuse. …
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