"As the Archbishop of southern Africa, I take responsibility for what has happened during the time of my predecessors and where we have wronged or failed anyone, we beg their forgiveness," Makgoba said.

He said the church's Synod of Bishops in southern Africa was "shocked and distressed" to hear of Shukri's abuse. He expressed his commitment to focus on claims of abuse levelled against the church's leaders who were entrusted to give pastoral care, especially when nothing had been done about such allegations.

Makgoba said Shukri had been in touch with one of the bishops but was "unwilling to go into detail or name the person or persons who had abused him".

"While respecting his wishes, we usually urge victims of abuse to lay charges with the police and with church authorities. The police are often better equipped to investigate cases than we are, especially in cases which go back many decades and may have occurred in dioceses whose former leaders have died," Makgoba added.

Shukri broke his more than 40-year silence in an open letter to the press on sexual assaults he allegedly endured from various priests at St Cyprian's Grammar School.

Although the alleged incidents took place a while ago, he felt he could no longer keep quiet after Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu announced his resignation as ambassador to Oxfam, the international aid agency, in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals that have recently rocked the organisation.

In response, Tutu said he was "mortified" to learn this week of the suffering of Shukri at the hands of priests in Kimberley.

"Members of the clergy who break the law or behave immorally are as accountable for their actions - now, in the past and in the future - as any other member of God's family."

Tutu said he had confidence in Makgoba's commitment to hold the clergy accused of wrongdoing to account, and support those whose trust in the clergy had been betrayed.

In the letter, Shukri wrote: "when Archbishop Tutu made his statement about Oxfam, saying he is deeply disappointed about the sex scandal, I was reminded of all the times I had been sexually abused by Anglican priests."

"Not that one ever needs much reminding; my own memories of the abuse I experienced are with me everyday, and continue to impact my life on a daily basis."

"My memories dwell just beneath the surface of the veneer I have so carefully crafted to conceal them, covered in the shroud of silence I have draped over them since the first touch in 1978, when I was 10 years old."

"By the time of Father Desmond's inauguration as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986, I was 18 and still being abused."

"I was not the only one; there were others, too, many much younger. Today, I am speaking only for me, but my heart goes out to all of them," he said.

Shukri said he realised that breaking a silence of 40 years was as painful as maintaining it.

"As a child, those words - sexual abuse - were not part of my lexicon. The abuse was alienating and confusing. I did not know what to do, so I kept quiet, knowing that I was not alone, and that there were others, too.

"That knowledge provided a distorted sense of comfort, normalising the abnormal which, after all, is what life in apartheid South Africa trained us all to do."

The abuse, he said, had a lasting impact on his life and led to him being dependent on medication for depression.

"I have lived with clinical depression all my life.

"Over the years, self-loathing and despair have become part of my experience, habitual thoughts of suicide part of my routine. I have cultivated different coping rituals to get through the desperation," he added.

Shukri accused the Anglican church of a "conspiracy" of silence around sexual abuse in the church and challenged Tutu to openly take a stand against it.

*****

CAPE TOWN: Priest tried to rape me, says female reverend

By MEGAN BAADJIES
https://www.iol.co.za/
March 11, 2018

A female reverend who went on a hunger strike last week has spoken out about alleged sex attacks and discrimination she suffered at the hands of her colleagues.

Disgruntled Anglican Church Reverend June Major said she knows she's "going to be crucified" after she revealed the name of her alleged attacker during a press conference on Wednesday.

The man may not be named because he hasn't been charged.

Major, 47, hit the headlines last week when she embarked on a hunger strike after she was allegedly labelled a troublemaker by her former employer, Bishop Garth Counsell.

Major said she applied for a job in Australia and claimed Counsell wrote a reference letter in which he allegedly bad-mouthed her.

She ended her hunger strike on Sunday, shortly after a meeting with the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Reverend Thabo Makgoba.

On Tuesday she met with Counsell in the hope of coming to an agreement but the reverend says Counsell "would not budge as far as his decision was concerned".

"Bishop Garth looked me in the eye, knowing that his decision robbed me of an income," she said on Wednesday.

"Bishop Garth has informed the Bishop in Australia that there have been incidents in my parish, but he is unable to provide them with tangible proof or substance.

"I have been unfairly discriminated against due to the fact that I am a woman. As a result of this... I have ended up jobless and homeless. I would have received a package of R42 922 per month in Australia."

In another shocking revelation, Major claimed that another reverend tried to rape her twice while they were in Grahamstown.

The alleged attacks happened more than a decade ago, but she only reported it to police in January this year.

"I kept quiet about it to protect the church but I can't be silent anymore," she said.

"He came into my room and forced himself on me. I tried to get him off but he wouldn't budge, at that stage I felt his manhood against me.

"I was crying and eventually got him off. A few minutes later [he] came back. I told him to stop, he then left," she said.

She alleged that the docket has since "gone missing somewhere between Bellville police and Grahamstown".

"I want justice. [He] needs to be fired, he has no right to be a priest," added Major

The Daily Voice contacted the reverend, who said he was aware of the allegations against him.

"The allegations are nonsense, I can't comment any further," he said.

Captain FC Van Wyk confirms a charge was laid.

"The docket has been transferred from SAPS Bellville to Grahamstown, as the crime occurred in their precinct."

END