But as I began to seek answers as to what exactly happened and why, nothing could have prepared me for the years of dishonesty, obfuscation and, at times, outright hostility that followed.
Critical records went missing, statements from staff were dishonest, investigations were superficial, the organisations that should have been taking action to ensure the Safeguarding services were safe instead acted to reassure each other that everything was OK.

This extract was taken from a witness statement by someone who lost a child through incompetent midwifery services in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. By changing a single word, as I have done, it could easily be mistaken for a plea from a church survivor of sexual abuse. Both in Cumbria and across the country individuals have faced obstruction and hostility as they question the institutions that caused them or their loved ones real harm.

After my recent blog post when I spoke about bishops as managers who somehow then lost much of their pastoral skill, I realised that I needed to restate my claim in a more nuanced way. Bishops and other senior clergy do not in fact necessarily lose their pastoral skills with individuals; the problem is what may happen to these skills when they encounter an individual who has been damaged by the institution that they as bishops oversee. The capacity to show empathy for a woman who has been abused by a partner in a domestic situation may still function well. A problem arises when abuse is perpetrated, not by a violent husband but by a clergyman or even a fellow bishop. In this situation the shutters seem often to come down as we heard from the contributors to the previous blog post on this site.

The doctors, nurses and administrators at Barrow Hospital to whom complaints were made, were no doubt individually decent and caring people. There is nothing to suggest that as a group they neglected their children or their elderly parents. But something changed in them in the situation of having their colleagues or institution criticised. This was the beginning of the lies, dishonesty and hostility that were handed out to grieving parents and other vulnerable people. There is no doubt that this behaviour was internally justified. Sentiments like ‘we must stick together’ or ‘the hospital needs absolute loyalty from us’. All such justifications no doubt fudged the issue as to whether their actions were moral, compassionate or indeed served the long-term interests of the institution of which they were part. Of course, from the outside it can be clearly seen that such behaviour was far more damaging to the hospital than if a clean breast had been made at the start. But the dishonest culture of collusion and cover-up does not make this kind of calculation. It merely serves the immediate perceived needs of the institution. Cover-up at all costs rules, regardless of long-term damage to reputation and climate of trust. Every individual who participated in this kind of cover-up lost something of their inner soul. The institution also stole from them something important, their decency and their honour.

There are many gaps in our knowledge about what is happening in the church as the result of decades of cover-up and obstruction in sexual abuse cases. The IICSA hearings and the comments following the previous post suggest that the problems are still extensive. I would ask my readers who wish to experience the frustration of those at the wrong end of the complaint system within the church to read the comments from Andrew Graystone and Gilo. They will get a flavour of how frustrating it is to try and tackle an institution which closes ranks to make complaining almost impossible. The individuals who hide behind institutional walls are probably thoroughly good people like the Barrow hospital staff. But the institution has corrupted some of them. It is not their individual morality that has been taken away, but the institution itself may have done something to their sense of honour and their integrity.

Looking at the institutional structures of the Church of England from the outside, we can often see tremendous defensiveness at work. Those in charge of the church no doubt feel it needs to be defended because there are massive dangers if legal liability for past abuses is accepted. The diocese of Tasmania in Australia has had to sell of half its buildings in order to meet the financial liabilities for past abuse settlements. Here the cost of meeting possible claims against the Church of England is potentially huge. Even if the Church does have large liabilities to meet in the future, it is hard to see that a path of obfuscation is a viable way forward for the Church. At best it could delay the day of reckoning but this delay would only be achieved at the cost of integrity and openness. Many of us want to see the dark shadow of abuse being faced up to rather than buried by delaying tactics. Honesty and integrity are surely better weapons with which to face the future than half-truths and cover-ups.

As a final comment this blog applauds the appointment of Vivien Faull as the new Bishop of Bristol. Vivien showed her leadership mettle in the messy business with the bell ringers at York. In this blog at the time we supported her stance as there was clearly a festering problem which needed to be confronted. This decisiveness is an important addition to the House of Bishops. Let us hope that her appointment will help to create a new atmosphere not only in Bristol but across the whole Church of England.