The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church

Doyle, Thomas P.

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.019

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Anderson (2016) argues that the institutionalized attempt to preserve a patriarchal system by the Catholic Church facilitates violence against children. Doyle (2017) emphasized that the Australian Royal Commission received more reports of sexual abuse of minors from victims of Catholic Church personnel than from any other source. Doyle suggests that this finding can be explained in great part by the Church’s justification for its own structure and the role of its clerics.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Deacons, and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Authority of the German Bishops’ Conference 1946–2014

et al. 2019

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This study explores the extent of sexual abuse of minors by members of the Catholic Church in Germany. It is the first comprehensive study to examine this extent in a European country. The goals of this study are as follows: (a) to analyze whether the extent and characteristics of sexual abuse in a European country are comparable to those in the United States and Australia and (b) how discrepancies can be explained. The personnel files of 38,156 Catholic Priests, deacons, and male members of religious orders in the authority of the German Bishops’ Conference were analyzed. The study period lasted from 1946 to 2014. All 27 German dioceses took part in this study. A total of 4.4% of all clerics ( N = 1,670) from 1946 to 2014 were alleged to have committed sexual abuse, and 3,677 children or adolescents were identified as victims. These results are similar to those from comparable studies in the United States. Sexual abuse of minors within the authority of the Catholic Church seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Deacons, and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Authority of the German Bishops’ Conference 1946–2014

et al. 2019

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“…The Philadelphia Grand Jury report (2005) held the church authorities responsible for widespread CSA by trying to cover up reports of the problem and further transfers of such priests to other parishes terming their action to be as immoral as the abuse itself. Doyle (2017) in his testimony before the Royal Commission investigating institutional child sexual abuse in Australia submitted that the Church authorities ignored the crime, tried to silence the victim by every possible means and defended the abuser facilitating abuse through moving him to another place to continue abusing, hence terming the approach of the RCC to be secrecy, cover ups and betrayal of the victims. (Browne: 2017).…”

Section: Insufficient Action Against Abusing Clergymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critique of the Vatican’s Role in Recent Child Protection Practice: A Brief Report

Rashid¹,

Barron

2018

Journal of Child Sexual Abuse

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The current report aims to clarify the practices and implicit intentions of the Holy See in addressing child sexual abuse (CSA) by clerics in the twenty-first century. Church investigation reports, United Nations reports, press coverage, and academic literature were explored to understand the relationship between Church intention and practice. Various types of literature highlight the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) as an organization that is self-referential and self-defensive, with the implicit aim of protecting the reputation of RCC at the expense of children. Organizational responses are seen as promoting the protection of perpetrating clerics, resulting in the spread of CSA by clergy nationally and globally. Recommendations are made for the introduction of modern-day management practices in RCC, filtered through a faithful understanding of gospel principles. The authors suggest that the United Nations may be an important vehicle for fostering leverage for change in RCC child protection practice.

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“…These privileges are embedded in the constitutional right to freedom of religious belief and expression and comprise an important and characteristic historical treatment of religious organisations in modern western democratic states (McPhillips 2015). Privileges accorded to religious organisations include tax exemptions for various kinds of financial income for organisations legally recognised as charities (most established religious groups), and recognition that the laws and legal courts of religious organisations have jurisdiction over internal matters, including the regulation of marriage and responses to allegations of child sexual abuse (Doyle 2017;Tapsell 2018a). A final privilege that the state confers on religious groups is that within federal and state human rights laws, exemptions are permitted that allow selected organisations to discriminate on the basis of employment and training.…”

Section: The Distinctiveness Of Religious Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As noted above, clericalism has been identified as a major issue for the Catholic Church and as a cause of child sexual abuse (Australian Government 2017j, pp. 612-43; McPhillips 2016) and has been embedded in the power relations and theological practices of the Church for hundreds of years (Doyle 2017). Hence, changes to this practice will involve cultural and theological innovations to ensure new processes of religious leadership formation and a reformulation of the theology of priesthood.…”

Section: Tapsell Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion after the Royal Commission: Challenges to Religion–State Relations

McPhillips

2020

Religions

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The findings and recommendations emanating from the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2012–2017) have advised religious organisations that they need to undertake significant changes to legal, governance and cultural/theological practices. The reason for urgency in enacting these changes is that religious organisations were the least child safe institutions across all Australian organisations, with poor practices of transparency, accountability and responsibility coupled with a tendency to protect the reputation of the institution above the safety of children in their care. In Australia, new state laws have been enacted and are impacting on the internal governance systems of religious organisations, including removing the secrecy of the Catholic confessional, instituting mandatory reporting of child abuse by clerics and criminalising the failure to report child sexual abuse. Religious organisations have moved to adopt many of the recommendations regarding their troubled governance including the professionalisation of religious ministry; adoption of professional standards; and appropriate redress for survivors and changes to religious laws. However, these changes signal significant challenges to current church–state relations, which have been characterised by positioning religious organisations as special institutions that enjoy exemptions from certain human rights legislation, on the basis of protecting religious freedom. This article examines and evaluates the nexus between state and religion in Australian public life as it is emerging in a post-Royal Commission environment, and in particular contested claims around the meaning and value of religious freedom versus the necessity of institutional reform to ensure that religious organisations can demonstrate safety for children and other vulnerable groups.

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The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church

Cited by 19 publications

References 6 publications

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Deacons, and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Authority of the German Bishops’ Conference 1946–2014

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Deacons, and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Authority of the German Bishops’ Conference 1946–2014

Critique of the Vatican’s Role in Recent Child Protection Practice: A Brief Report

Religion after the Royal Commission: Challenges to Religion–State Relations

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