Pressure on Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has increased after revelations a priest at the centre of a sexual abuse case was twice reappointed under him while he was serving as bishop of Chelmsford.
Mr Cottrell acknowledged things “could have been handled differently” as the crisis at the very top of the Church of England deepened.
The Archbishop will become the Church’s most senior figure when Justin Welby steps down as Archbishop of Canterbury in January following criticism of his own handling of an abuse case.
But Bishop of Newcastle the Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley questioned how Mr Cottrell could have any credibility, and Bishop of Gloucester the Rt Rev Rachel Treweek declined to publicly back him.
Mr Cottrell has already faced calls to resign over his handling of the case of David Tudor, who was banned from ministry for life this year after admitting what the Church of England described as serious sexual abuse involving two girls aged 15 and 16.
Decades earlier, Tudor was suspended from ministry for five years in 1988, having admitted, according to a tribunal document, having sex with a 16-year-old girl he met when she was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain.
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