Candidate for C of E panel to choose Welby successor knew about John Smyth’s abuse

Report says General Synod member Rev Andrew Cornes was told of Smyth’s abuse in 1982 but failed to act

A retired clergyman who could be part of the selection process for the next archbishop of Canterbury knew about the sadistic abuse of boys and young men in the early 1980s but failed to take action, according to the report that triggered Justin Welby’s resignation.

One of John Smyth’s victims discussed his abuse with the Rev Andrew Cornes in September 1982, but “there is no evidence to suggest that [Cornes] took action to respond to this”, the report said.

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Mystery surrounds John Smyth after leaving UK and Zimbabwe for South Africa

Smyth enjoyed ‘opulent lifestyle’ in Cape Town after he was barred from Zimbabwe, where he abused boys at summer camps

The evangelical Christian barrister John Smyth abused as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK, Zimbabwe and possibly other African countries but an independent review has said there remains little concrete information on his time in South Africa.

The review into the Anglican church’s handling of Smyth’s abuses said he might have been brought to justice had Justin Welby, who on Tuesday announced he would step down as archbishop of Canterbury, formally reported him to the police when he found out in 2013.

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Justin Welby: why archbishop chosen for his managerial skills had to go

Failure to tackle Church of England’s safeguarding issues and own knowledge of abuse reflect religions’ denial

In earlier times it used to be more straightforward: archbishops of Canterbury such as Thomas Becket and William Laud used to get it in the neck from the king; or, in the case of Simon Sudbury, who was killed in the 14th-century Peasants’ Revolt, at the hands of the mob.

Now, it is more likely to be a politician. Justin Welby has resigned after having lost the confidence of the Church of England over his failure to tackle the institution’s chaotic handling of safeguarding, and his own personal culpability in failing to spot his own vulnerability, arising from his links to and knowledge of the rapacious abuser John Smyth.

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Justin Welby to quit as archbishop of Canterbury over handling of abuse scandal

Leader of Church of England had faced pressure since damning report on cover-up of John Smyth’s abuse

The archbishop of Canterbury is to step down amid intense pressure over his handling of one of the church’s worst abuse scandals.

Justin Welby’s decision, announced on Tuesday, comes after mounting demands from victims and members of the clergy for him to quit.

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Campaigners in Italy urge pope to stop ‘sacrifice’ of 200-year-old tree for Xmas

Twenty-nine-metre tall fir destined to be chopped down and transported to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican

Environmental campaigners in Italy’s northern Trentino province have started a campaign to stop the felling of a 200-year-old fir tree intended to form the centrepiece of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations.

The so-called “Green Giant” is 29 metres tall and is due to be chopped down next week in a forest in the Ledro valley before being transported to the Vatican and positioned in St Peter’s Square, where it will be unveiled on 9 December.

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Starmer refuses to back Justin Welby after clamor for archbishop to resign

Prime minister says victims of serial abuser John Smyth ‘failed very, very badly’

Keir Starmer has refused to back the archbishop of Canterbury, who has faced growing demands to resign over his handling of an abuse scandal.

Pressure on Justin Welby has been intensifying since the publication last week of a damning report on the church’s cover-up of John Smyth’s abuse in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later in Zimbabwe and South Africa. About 130 boys are believed to have been victims.

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Head of New Orleans’ embattled Catholic archdiocese offers to resign

Gregory Aymond’s offer, required because he turns 75, says he wants to stay for resolution of institution’s bankruptcy but adds it is up to Pope Francis

New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archbishop Gregory Aymond is submitting his resignation Tuesday, on his 75th birthday, fulfilling a church requirement – though it is unclear if Vatican officials would immediately accept it with his scandal-plagued organization’s expensive, highly contentious bankruptcy case still unresolved.

In a letter issued on Friday to priests and deacons under his command, Aymond cited canon – or church – law that required him to offer to retire because of his age. But he said he also offered to remain in office until the resolution of the bankruptcy.

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Bishop calls for Justin Welby to resign over failure to pursue serial abuser

Helen-Ann Hartley says archbishop’s position is untenable as members of Church of England’s ruling body launch petition

A Church of England bishop has added her voice to growing calls for the archbishop of Canterbury to resign over his failure to pursue a sadistic abuser of children when allegations were brought to his attention.

Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Justin Welby’s position was untenable and he should quit. A line needed to be drawn, she added.

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Swedish court jails far-right leader who burned Qur’an

Danish politician Rasmus Paludan sentenced to four months for incitement against ethnic group

A far-right Danish-Swedish politician has been sentenced to prison on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for burning copies of the Qur’an and making offensive statements about Muslims.

Rasmus Paludan was the first person to go on trial in Sweden – and is now the first to be sentenced – for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.

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Tucker Carlson credits demons for the invention of nuclear technology

Ex-Fox News host makes bizarre claim on Steve Bannon’s podcast, days after saying a demon attacked him in his sleep

Demons that Tucker Carlson claimed attacked him as he slept were also responsible for the invention of nuclear technology, the conservative former Fox News host said on Monday in another bizarre contention.

Carlson made the claim on the War Room podcast hosted by his fellow rightwing extremist Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in the Trump administration who was released from prison last week after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

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French pupil’s father on trial for spreading lies that led to teacher’s Islamist beheading

Eight charged in connection with murder of Samuel Paty in Paris suburbs in 2020

It was a killing that started with a lie. In October 2020, an Islamist terrorist tracked down and decapitated professor Samuel Paty as he left school on the last day before half-term holidays.

In the days preceding his murder, Paty, 47, who taught geography and history, had been the subject of an intense campaign of online harassment sparked when a 13-year-old student claimed he had discriminated against his Muslim pupils during a class on moral and civic education.

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Expert issues report on how to settle highly contentious New Orleans church bankruptcy case

Mohsin ‘Mo’ Meghji was paid $350,000 to advise on conflicting settlement proposals from the church and clergy abuse victims

An outside expert brought in to help resolve the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’ expensive, highly contentious bankruptcy protection case has suggested deferring pay to all professionals involved in the matter for three months.

The move is to see if that prompts the church and clergy abuse victims to compromise on conflicting settlement proposals which are hundreds of millions of dollars apart.

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Muslims in Europe experiencing ‘worrying surge’ in racism, survey finds

‘Dehumanising rhetoric’ blamed as almost half of respondents say they recently suffered discrimination

Muslims across Europe are grappling with a “worrying surge” of racism that is being fuelled in part by “dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric”, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as it published a survey in which nearly half of the Muslim respondents said they had recently experienced discrimination.

Published on Thursday by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the survey of 9,600 Muslims across 13 member states found that racism and discrimination threads through most aspects of their lives.

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Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peruvian priest and ‘father of liberation theology’, dies at 96

Dominican friar hailed as ‘prophet of the poor’ for belief that the church had political duty to end poverty

Gustavo Gutiérrez, the influential Peruvian priest known as “the father of liberation theology” and hailed as a “prophet of the poor”, has died in Lima at the age of 96.

Gutiérrez, a theologian and Dominican friar, was a celebrated – and sometimes controversial – proponent of the idea that the church needed to side with the poor and to fight to improve their lot.

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Tuesday briefing: Canada puts India ‘on notice’ as row over alleged killing of Sikh activists escalates

In today’s newsletter: Justin Trudeau says there are ‘credible allegations’ that Modi’s government was involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist in British Columbia. What does say about India’s global standing?

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Good morning.

In September 2023, Justin Trudeau stood up in parliament and made extraordinary allegations against the Indian government. The prime minister said Canadian authorities were investigating “credible allegations” about the potential involvement of Indian officials in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh separatist activist in British Columbia.

Middle East | Israel has accused Hezbollah of keeping hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker under a hospital in the southern suburbs of Beirut, though it said it would not strike the complex. The Sahel hospital in Dahiyeh was evacuated shortly afterwards, and Fadi Alame, its director, told Reuters that the allegations were untrue.

Labour | A cross-party group of 30 MPs has urged Rachel Reeves to impose a 2% tax on wealth above £10m on Britain’s rich in next week’s budget rather than announce spending cuts that would hit the most poor hardest.

Ukraine | Britain is to lend Ukraine an additional £2.26bn and allow Kyiv to spend the money on weapons to fight off the Russian invasion as part of a wider $50bn (£38.5bn) loan programme expected to be confirmed by G7 members later this week.

Sudan | Refugees and aid agencies have warned of deteriorating conditions in overcrowded camps in Chad, as intensifying violence and a hunger crisis in Sudan drive huge numbers across the border. About 25,000 people – the vast majority women and children – crossed into eastern Chad in the first week of October. Read an explainer.

European Union | Moldovans have voted by a razor-thin majority in favour of joining the EU, nearly final results showed on Monday after a pivotal referendum clouded by allegations of Russian interference. With 50.18% supporting EU membership, the decision was much closer than pre-referendum polls suggested.

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Why experts say Christian nationalists telling Bible stories may spur violence

Leaders paint Kamala Harris as Jezebel, who is cast out – from a window, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs

As the sky darkened on the National Mall in DC last Saturday, evangelical pastor Ché Ahn addressed the thousands of worshippers gathered there and issued a decree.

Trump, Ahn said, was a figure akin to the biblical King Jehu, and “Kamala Harris is a type of Jezebel, and as you know, Jehu cast out Jezebel”.

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Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese to pay $880m in child sex abuse settlement

Archbishop expresses sorrow in announcement to pay 1,353 people who alleged they were abused as children by priests

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880m to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a US diocese over decades-old abuse claims.

Archbishop Jose H Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday.

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Thousands rally at Christian nationalist event in DC to ‘turn hearts back to God’

Jenny Donnelly, leader of anti-trans Don’t Mess With Our Kids, bills first pre-election event as rallying call for mothers

Tens of thousands of Christians poured onto the National Mall on Saturday to atone, pray and take a stand for America – which, in their view, has been poisoned by secularism and must be ruled instead by a Christian god.

Summoned to Washington DC by the multilevel marketing professional-turned-Christian “apostle” Jenny Donnelly and the anti-LGBTQ+ celebrity pastor Lou Engle, they streamed onto the lawn holding blue and pink banners emblazoned with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids – a nod to the myth that children are being indoctrinated into adopting gay and transgender identities.

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Mikola Bychok: Melbourne bishop’s appointment to College of Cardinals seen as gesture of support for Ukraine

Ukraine-born Mikola Bychok will become the only Australian resident in the powerful Catholic church position and the youngest cardinal overall

At just 44, Ukraine-born Melbourne bishop Mikola Bychok has ascended to one of the most powerful positions in the Catholic church, where he will have a say in who becomes the next pope.

Pope Francis named him as one of 21 new cardinals, making him the only Australian resident who will don the signature red vestments, and the youngest cardinal overall.

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Faith leaders unite to reject prejudice on eve of 7 October anniversary

Muslim and Jewish figures join archbishop in first act of high-level solidarity

Muslim and Jewish leaders today unite around an unprecedented joint statement calling the assaults on Israel on 7 October last year “brutal Hamas terrorist attacks” that led to a “devastating war in Gaza and beyond” which together have caused “horrific” human suffering.

Joined by the archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in the first high-level act of inter-faith solidarity in the year-long conflict, they say in a letter to the Observer: “Our faiths and our humanity teach us that we should mourn for all the innocent people who have lost their lives.

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