KNOW THE TRUTH
A MEMOIR
George Carey
Harper Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This edition published by Harper Perennial 2005
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004
Copyright © George Carey 2004, 2005
George Carey asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007120291
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2012 ISBN 9780007439799
Version: 2016-09-30
CONTENTS
14 Empty Stomachs Have no Ears
16 The Challenge of Homosexuality
20 From Crusades to Co-Operation
When, halfway through my archiepiscopate, I decided to write my memoirs I was surprised to discover that I am the only one of 103 Archbishops to have done so. Admittedly Archbishop Thomas Secker in the eighteenth century set out on the task but his sudden death left his memoirs unfinished. This book is a reflection on a ministry of which Archbishop Cosmo Lang said long ago: ‘The post [of Archbishop of Canterbury] is impossible for any one man to do, but only one man can do it.’ Any holder of this historic office knows from first-hand experience that its demands, expectations and opportunities take one to the edge of human endurance, and require of its holders a recognition of our frailty and our need of God’s everlasting grace.
This edition of Know the Truth gives me an opportunity to comment on some of the reactions of those who have read the first edition.
I might have anticipated that certain sections of the press, and, indeed, a few Church leaders, would focus attention on what I wrote about the Royal Family. I was accused of breaking confidentiality, and one writer even saw this as ‘the ultimate betrayal of trust’. There is no truth in this claim. As will become clear to the reader, no conversation I had with any member of the Royal Family is divulged in the book. I have always kept strictly to the principle of pastoral confidentiality, with the Royal Family and indeed with anyone else. However, what particularly caught the media’s attention was the revelation that I had several private conversations with Mrs Parker Bowles. Again, no report of our conversation is given: all that is offered is my opinion of her as an