Silence, Secrecy and Power
Understanding the Royal Commission Findings into the Failure of Religious Organisations to Protect Children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.37306Keywords:
Catholic Church, institutional child sexual abuse, Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, violence against children in religious organisationsAbstract
Religious groups represented over 60% of all institutions appearing before the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This indicates that there are specific issues pertinent to the institutional cultures and structures of religious groups with regard to the sexual abuse of children. This warrants close investigation and analysis by scholars of religion. The article provides the background and context to the establishment of the Royal Commission, and an overview of the Commission's methodology and its investigation into religious organisations, as well as an analysis of the outcomes of that investigation via the Final Report. The report includes 57 specific recommendations for religious institutions, which, when closely considered, will constitute formidable challenges for faith traditions in transforming institutional culture while conforming to child safety standards. It is argued that the success of the Royal Commission is due to a multiplicity of factors including the outcomes of previous inquiries, the improved status of survivor testimony, and the innovative methodology employed to investigate organisations.
References
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Bowman, Marion. 2016. Crisis, Change and the Continuous Art of Individual Interpretation and Negotiation: The Aftermath of Clerical Sexual Abuse in Newfoundland. Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions 3: 140–67.
Death, Jodie. 2018. Governing Child Abuse, Voices and Victimisation. The Use of Public Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Christian Institutions. Routledge, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315559506
Doyle, Thomas. 2017. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 103–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.019. 2009. The Spiritual Trauma Experience by Victims of Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy. Pastoral Psychology 58(3): 239–60.
Featherstone, Lisa. 2018. ‘Children in a Terrible State’: Understandings of Trauma and Child Sexual Assault in 1970s and 1980s Australia. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 164–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1455063
Gleeson, Kate. 2015. The Money Problem: Reparation and Restorative Justice in the Catholic Church’s Toward Healing Program. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 26(3): 317–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/10345329.2015.12036024
Golding, Frank. 2018. Sexual Abuse as the Core Transgression of Childhood Innocence: Unintended Consequences for Care Leavers. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1445121
Herman, Judith Lewis. 1997. Trauma and Recovery. Pandora Press, London.
Kaladelfos, Andy, Yorick Small and Mark Finnane. 2016. Introduction. In The Sexual Abuse of Children. Recognition and Redress, 1–4. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne.
Keenan, Marie. 2012. Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organisational Culture. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Mathews, Ben. 2017. Optimising Implementation of Reforms to Better Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutions: Insights from Public Health, Regulatory Theory, and Australia’s Royal Commission. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 86–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.007
McPhillips, Kathleen. 2016. The Church, the Commission and the Search for Truth. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 29(1): 30–51
—2018. ‘Soul Murder’: Investigating Spiritual Trauma at the Royal Commission. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 231–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1458329
McPhillips, Kathleen, Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen, Michael Salter and Cathy Kezelman. 2019. Trauma after the Royal Commission: Building a Trauma Informed Culture. Forthcoming.
Middleton, Warwick, Pam Stavropoulos, Martin J. Dorahy, Christa Krüger, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Alfonso Martínez-Taboas, Vedat Sar, and Bethany Brand. 2014. Institutional Abuse and Societal Silence: An Emerging Global Problem. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 48(1): 22–25.
Newcastle Herald. 2000–2017. Shine the Light Campaign. https://www.theherald.com.au/shine-the-light/
NSW Special Commission of Inquiry. 2012–2014. The Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. http://www.specialcommissions.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/sisa/default.aspx
Palmer, Donald, and Valerie Feldman. 2017. Toward a More Comprehensive Analysis of the Role of Organisational Culture in Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Contexts. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.08.004
Parkinson, Patrick. 2002. What does the Lord Require of Us? Child Sexual Abuse in the Churches. Journal of Religion and Abuse 4: 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1300/j154v04n02_02
Plante, Thomas, and Kathleen L. McChesney (eds). 2011. Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis 2002–2012. San Francisco, CA, Praeger.
Ronken, Carol, and Hetty Johnston. 2015. Child Sexual Assault: Facts and Statistics. Bravehearts. https://bravehearts.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Facts-and-Stats_updated.pdf
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 2014. Interim Report, Vol. 1. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/interim_report_volume-1.pdf
—2017a. Case Study 22. Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-studies/case-study-22-yeshiva-bondi-and-yeshivah-melbourne
—2017b. Final Report. Preface & Executive Summary Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/preface-and-executive-summary
—2017c. Final Report, Vol. 1. Our Inquiry Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/our-inquiry
—2017d. Final Report, Vol. 3. Impacts Commonwealth of Australia.
—2017e. Final Report, Vol. 5. Private Sessions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report-private-sessions
—2017f. Final Report, Vol. 16: Book 1. Religious Institutions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/religious-institutions
—2017g. Final Report, Vol. 16, Book 2. Religious Institutions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/religious-institutions
—2017h. Final Report, Vol. 16, Book 3. Religious Institutions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/religious-institutions
Salter, Michael. 2016. The Privatisation of Incest: The Neglect of Familiar Abuse in Australian Public Inquiries. In The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, edited by Yorick Small, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane, 108–120. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818779825
—2018. Abuse and Cruelty in Religious Bureaucracy: The Case of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 243–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1459782
Sauvage, Deborah, and Patrick O’Leary. 2016. Child Sexual Abuse in Faith-based Institutions: Gender, Spiritual Trauma and Treatment Frameworks. In The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, edited by Yorick Small, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane, 146–59. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818779825
Sipe, Richard. 2007. Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis. Taylor & Francis, New York.
Sköld, Joanna. 2016. The Truth about Abuse: A Comparative Approach to Inquiry Narratives on Historical Institutional Child Abuse. History of Education 45(4): 492–509. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760x.2016.1177607
Smallbone, Stephen. 2017. The Impact of Australia’s Royal Commission on Child and Youth-serving Organisations. Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect 74: 99–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.018
Swain, Shurlee. 2014. History of Institutions Providing Out of Home Residential Care for Children (Report). The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Commonwealth of Australia. 2015. Giving Voice to Narratives of Institutional Sex Abuse. Australian Feminist Law Journal 41(2): 289–304.
—2018. Institutional Abuse: A Long History. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 153–63.
Tapsell, Kieran. 2014. Potiphar’s Wife: The Vatican’s Secret and Child Sexual Abuse. ATF Press, Adelaide. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt163t8c3.6
—2018. Zero Tolerance? The Facts Don’t Support the Pope’s Claims on Child Abuse. The Guardian, January 31. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/zero-tolerance-the-facts-dont-support-the-popes-claims-on-child-abuse.
—2019. Civil and Canon Law on Reporting Child Sexual Abuse to the Civil Authorities. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 31(3): 143–64.
Terry, Karen J. 2016. Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. In The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, edited by Yorick Small, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane, 78–91. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818779825
Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry. 2012–2013. Victorian Parliamentary Family and Community Development Committee. https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/fcdc/inquiry/340
Wright, Katie. 2017. Remaking Collective Knowledge: An Analysis of the Complex and Multiple Effects of Inquiries into Historical Institutional Child Abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 10–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.08.028
—2018. Challenging Institutional Denial: Psychological Discourse, Therapeutic Culture and Public Inquiries. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 177–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1462237
Wright, Katie, and Shurlee Swain. 2018. Speaking the Unspeakable, Naming the Unnameable: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 139–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1467725
Wright, Katie, Shurlee Swain and Kathleen McPhillips. 2017. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 1–9.
Bowman, Marion. 2016. Crisis, Change and the Continuous Art of Individual Interpretation and Negotiation: The Aftermath of Clerical Sexual Abuse in Newfoundland. Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions 3: 140–67.
Death, Jodie. 2018. Governing Child Abuse, Voices and Victimisation. The Use of Public Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Christian Institutions. Routledge, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315559506
Doyle, Thomas. 2017. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 103–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.019. 2009. The Spiritual Trauma Experience by Victims of Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy. Pastoral Psychology 58(3): 239–60.
Featherstone, Lisa. 2018. ‘Children in a Terrible State’: Understandings of Trauma and Child Sexual Assault in 1970s and 1980s Australia. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 164–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1455063
Gleeson, Kate. 2015. The Money Problem: Reparation and Restorative Justice in the Catholic Church’s Toward Healing Program. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 26(3): 317–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/10345329.2015.12036024
Golding, Frank. 2018. Sexual Abuse as the Core Transgression of Childhood Innocence: Unintended Consequences for Care Leavers. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1445121
Herman, Judith Lewis. 1997. Trauma and Recovery. Pandora Press, London.
Kaladelfos, Andy, Yorick Small and Mark Finnane. 2016. Introduction. In The Sexual Abuse of Children. Recognition and Redress, 1–4. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne.
Keenan, Marie. 2012. Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organisational Culture. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Mathews, Ben. 2017. Optimising Implementation of Reforms to Better Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutions: Insights from Public Health, Regulatory Theory, and Australia’s Royal Commission. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 86–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.007
McPhillips, Kathleen. 2016. The Church, the Commission and the Search for Truth. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 29(1): 30–51
—2018. ‘Soul Murder’: Investigating Spiritual Trauma at the Royal Commission. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 231–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1458329
McPhillips, Kathleen, Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen, Michael Salter and Cathy Kezelman. 2019. Trauma after the Royal Commission: Building a Trauma Informed Culture. Forthcoming.
Middleton, Warwick, Pam Stavropoulos, Martin J. Dorahy, Christa Krüger, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Alfonso Martínez-Taboas, Vedat Sar, and Bethany Brand. 2014. Institutional Abuse and Societal Silence: An Emerging Global Problem. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 48(1): 22–25.
Newcastle Herald. 2000–2017. Shine the Light Campaign. https://www.theherald.com.au/shine-the-light/
NSW Special Commission of Inquiry. 2012–2014. The Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. http://www.specialcommissions.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/sisa/default.aspx
Palmer, Donald, and Valerie Feldman. 2017. Toward a More Comprehensive Analysis of the Role of Organisational Culture in Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Contexts. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.08.004
Parkinson, Patrick. 2002. What does the Lord Require of Us? Child Sexual Abuse in the Churches. Journal of Religion and Abuse 4: 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1300/j154v04n02_02
Plante, Thomas, and Kathleen L. McChesney (eds). 2011. Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis 2002–2012. San Francisco, CA, Praeger.
Ronken, Carol, and Hetty Johnston. 2015. Child Sexual Assault: Facts and Statistics. Bravehearts. https://bravehearts.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Facts-and-Stats_updated.pdf
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 2014. Interim Report, Vol. 1. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/interim_report_volume-1.pdf
—2017a. Case Study 22. Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-studies/case-study-22-yeshiva-bondi-and-yeshivah-melbourne
—2017b. Final Report. Preface & Executive Summary Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/preface-and-executive-summary
—2017c. Final Report, Vol. 1. Our Inquiry Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/our-inquiry
—2017d. Final Report, Vol. 3. Impacts Commonwealth of Australia.
—2017e. Final Report, Vol. 5. Private Sessions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report-private-sessions
—2017f. Final Report, Vol. 16: Book 1. Religious Institutions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/religious-institutions
—2017g. Final Report, Vol. 16, Book 2. Religious Institutions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/religious-institutions
—2017h. Final Report, Vol. 16, Book 3. Religious Institutions Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/religious-institutions
Salter, Michael. 2016. The Privatisation of Incest: The Neglect of Familiar Abuse in Australian Public Inquiries. In The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, edited by Yorick Small, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane, 108–120. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818779825
—2018. Abuse and Cruelty in Religious Bureaucracy: The Case of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 243–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1459782
Sauvage, Deborah, and Patrick O’Leary. 2016. Child Sexual Abuse in Faith-based Institutions: Gender, Spiritual Trauma and Treatment Frameworks. In The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, edited by Yorick Small, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane, 146–59. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818779825
Sipe, Richard. 2007. Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis. Taylor & Francis, New York.
Sköld, Joanna. 2016. The Truth about Abuse: A Comparative Approach to Inquiry Narratives on Historical Institutional Child Abuse. History of Education 45(4): 492–509. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760x.2016.1177607
Smallbone, Stephen. 2017. The Impact of Australia’s Royal Commission on Child and Youth-serving Organisations. Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect 74: 99–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.018
Swain, Shurlee. 2014. History of Institutions Providing Out of Home Residential Care for Children (Report). The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Commonwealth of Australia. 2015. Giving Voice to Narratives of Institutional Sex Abuse. Australian Feminist Law Journal 41(2): 289–304.
—2018. Institutional Abuse: A Long History. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 153–63.
Tapsell, Kieran. 2014. Potiphar’s Wife: The Vatican’s Secret and Child Sexual Abuse. ATF Press, Adelaide. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt163t8c3.6
—2018. Zero Tolerance? The Facts Don’t Support the Pope’s Claims on Child Abuse. The Guardian, January 31. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/zero-tolerance-the-facts-dont-support-the-popes-claims-on-child-abuse.
—2019. Civil and Canon Law on Reporting Child Sexual Abuse to the Civil Authorities. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 31(3): 143–64.
Terry, Karen J. 2016. Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. In The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, edited by Yorick Small, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane, 78–91. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818779825
Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry. 2012–2013. Victorian Parliamentary Family and Community Development Committee. https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/fcdc/inquiry/340
Wright, Katie. 2017. Remaking Collective Knowledge: An Analysis of the Complex and Multiple Effects of Inquiries into Historical Institutional Child Abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect 74(1): 10–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.08.028
—2018. Challenging Institutional Denial: Psychological Discourse, Therapeutic Culture and Public Inquiries. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 177–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1462237
Wright, Katie, and Shurlee Swain. 2018. Speaking the Unspeakable, Naming the Unnameable: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 139–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1467725
Wright, Katie, Shurlee Swain and Kathleen McPhillips. 2017. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Journal of Australian Studies 42(2): 1–9.
Published
2019-06-25
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
McPhillips, K. (2019). Silence, Secrecy and Power: Understanding the Royal Commission Findings into the Failure of Religious Organisations to Protect Children. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 31(3), 116-142. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.37306
