A leading Church of England prelate quit his post as a bishop yesterday, a week after being accused of covering up for a paedophile priest.
Former Archbishop of York Lord Hope surrendered his position as a bishop in the Diocese of Bradford after a judge found he had protected the Very Reverend Robert Waddington from exposure, investigation and prosecution.
Obviously, you don't have to be very reverent to be 'Very Reverend' in the Anglican Church.
But while stepping down, Lord Hope – who covered up for the sex abuser cleric while serving as number two in the hierarchy of the church – stopped short of apologising for the priests’s actions.
He said in a statement: ‘After much prayerful and considered thought I wrote at the beginning of the week to the Bishop of Leeds and in the light of the Cahill Inquiry report I have submitted my resignation as Honorary Assistant Bishop of Bradford, now West Yorkshire and the Dales, with immediate effect.
‘This ends my nearly 50 years of formal ministry in the Church of England, which I have always sought to serve with dedication. Does that dedication include enabling pedophiles to continue to abuse? How does that serve the church? How does it serve God? He still doesn't think he's done anything wrong!!!
'I will certainly continue to pray for the important ongoing work with survivors.’
Lord Hope’s position as a bishop in Bradford came into question following publication of an inquiry report last week in which Judge Sally Cahill found that ‘because of the actions he took, and his inaction on other occasions, opportunities were missed for an investigation which may have led to a prosecution during Robert Waddington’s lifetime’.
The judge’s report added: ‘His concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount in his response to these allegations.’
Last week Lord Hope, who served as Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005, greeted the publication of Judge Cahill’s report by calling it ‘flawed’ and a ‘disappointment’ and offering only qualified regret for the Waddington cover-up.
The report found that Waddington, who rose to become Dean of Manchester, in charge of the city’s cathedral, was a lifelong paedophile who had attracted complaints in every decade from the 1950s.
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| Lord Hope |
Former Archbishop of York Lord Hope surrendered his position as a bishop in the Diocese of Bradford after a judge found he had protected the Very Reverend Robert Waddington from exposure, investigation and prosecution.
Obviously, you don't have to be very reverent to be 'Very Reverend' in the Anglican Church.
But while stepping down, Lord Hope – who covered up for the sex abuser cleric while serving as number two in the hierarchy of the church – stopped short of apologising for the priests’s actions.
He said in a statement: ‘After much prayerful and considered thought I wrote at the beginning of the week to the Bishop of Leeds and in the light of the Cahill Inquiry report I have submitted my resignation as Honorary Assistant Bishop of Bradford, now West Yorkshire and the Dales, with immediate effect.
‘This ends my nearly 50 years of formal ministry in the Church of England, which I have always sought to serve with dedication. Does that dedication include enabling pedophiles to continue to abuse? How does that serve the church? How does it serve God? He still doesn't think he's done anything wrong!!!
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| The ' not very' reverand Robert Waddington |
Lord Hope’s position as a bishop in Bradford came into question following publication of an inquiry report last week in which Judge Sally Cahill found that ‘because of the actions he took, and his inaction on other occasions, opportunities were missed for an investigation which may have led to a prosecution during Robert Waddington’s lifetime’.
The judge’s report added: ‘His concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount in his response to these allegations.’
Last week Lord Hope, who served as Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005, greeted the publication of Judge Cahill’s report by calling it ‘flawed’ and a ‘disappointment’ and offering only qualified regret for the Waddington cover-up.
The report found that Waddington, who rose to become Dean of Manchester, in charge of the city’s cathedral, was a lifelong paedophile who had attracted complaints in every decade from the 1950s.
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