Woltjer, Marjolein The Australian Royal Commission and the Truth Justice and Healing Council in relation to justice and healing for sexual child abuse. Master thesis, Master Theologie Religiewetenschappen.
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Abstract
Since the mid-twentieth century there have been cases of clerical sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia, and internationally. Australian victims of such abuses have asked for government action to respond. As a result, the Royal Commission was established in 2012 to examine child sexual abuse in Australian government and non-government institutions, including the Catholic Church. A year later, in 2013, the Truth Justice and Healing Council was set up to co-ordinate the Church’s response to the Royal Commission. This thesis is a qualitative study that examines how the Royal Commission and Truth Justice and Healing Council provided justice and healing for victims of clerical abuse. To investigate this issue, this study conducted literature research, document analysis and discourse analysis. In addition, this thesis examined how victims experienced the work of the Royal Commission through analysing their narratives and the book: Message to Australia (2017). The aim of this thesis is to create a more thorough response to victims of clergy abuse. This study discusses several researches that already exist within the field of justice and healing for sexual child abuse. It provides a theoretical framework as well as a contextual framework of sexual child abuse in Australia, and internationally. This study examines the Royal Commission and Truth Justice and Healing Council and looks further into how both organizations are related to the concepts of justice and healing. Both the Royal Commission and the Truth Justice and Healing Council aimed to provide justice and healing for victims of clerical abuse. In particular, the Royal Commission provided a sense of justice for victims through its recommendations and its private sessions in which victims could tell their experiences. As for the Truth Justice and Healing Council, it seems as if it was more concerned with restoring the reputation of the Catholic Church than healing its victims. Although this thesis specifically focused on clergy sexual abuse within Australia, it is important to challenge academic scholarly to investigate whether victims of clerical abuse are finding justice and healing worldwide.
| Type: | Thesis (Master) | ||||||||||||
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| Degree programme: | Master Theologie Religiewetenschappen | ||||||||||||
| Academic year: | 2018- 2019 | ||||||||||||
| Date of delivery: | 08 Feb 2019 12:39 | ||||||||||||
| Last modified: | 08 Feb 2019 12:39 | ||||||||||||
| URI: | https://rcs.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/483 |
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