One person punished for a misdeed does not cover the misdeed of another

In the case of the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, and his response (or lack of response) to safeguarding issues concerning the sex offender David Tudor, some people are saying that it’s enough that one archbishop has resigned recently on a safeguarding matter. We don’t need to call for Cottrell to resign too.

But this argument is truly shocking.

Imagine, for example, I had been caught shoplifting and taken to court and my defence was that my husband got caught shoplifting somewhere else a couple of months ago and he had already been punished for that – so surely, as a family, we had suffered enough?   How would the judge and jury respond to that?

It is upsetting, as a committed member of the Church of England and aware of all the incredibly good things that clergy and churchgoers all over the country do every single day of the week, to see another bishop being called to resign.  But if it is right to resign for one person to resign in the face of serious safeguarding failings then it is right for someone else to resign in a similar but different and separate situation.  And it’s completely illogical and unjust to suggest otherwise.

Some people may remember the case of Chris Huyne and Vicky Pryce who were both jailed for eight months when Pryce took the points for a speeding event that her husband Huyne had incurred. It might have seemed a bit harsh but, when you think about it, it was only appropriate that the person who committed the crime should pay the price and it was wrong for someone else to cover that up. Thinking about it, if Pryce had got away with her actions, a dangerous driver would have still been driving and potentially causing harm.

As a Church, we may be concerned and embarrassed to see both of our archbishops needing to resign but we do need to put survivors and the safety of people in our Church first. It is true that safeguarding in the Church has improved immeasurably over the last couple of decades, but we need to address a culture that still seems to prioritise trying to preserve the reputation of the Church by covering things up and playing things down rather than facing up to serious failings and the consequences of those failings.