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Child Sexual Abuse, Integrity Systems and the Anglican Church: Truth, Justice and Love

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2021

Virginia Miller  and
Seumas Miller
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Abstract

This article concerns child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church of Australia and the Church of England and, in particular, an integrity system to combat this problem and the ethical problems it gives rise to. The article relies on the findings of various commissions of inquiry to determine the nature and extent of child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church. The two salient ethical problems identified are: (1) design of safety measures in the light of the statistical preponderance of male on male sexuality; (2) justice issues arising from redress schemes established or proposed to provide redress to victims.

Keywords

Anglican Church of Australiachild sexual abuseChurch of Englandhomosexualityintegrity systemredress
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , November 2021 , pp. 193 - 212
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

1

Virginia Miller is a research fellow at the Centre for Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University. Seumas Miller holds research positions at Charles Sturt University, TU Delft and the University of Oxford.

References

2 Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (UK); Karen Terry, ‘The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950–2002’, The John Jay College Research Team (USA) 2004; Karen Terry, ‘The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950–2010’, The John Jay College Research Team (USA) 2011; The Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (ACCSA), ‘Analysis of Claims of Child Sexual Abuse Made with Respect to Catholic Church Institutions in Australia’ (Sydney: Commonwealth of Australia, 2017) and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (UK). See also, Martyn Percy, ‘Risk, Responsibility and Redemption: Remembering our Future’, St Mark’s Review, 245.3 (Sept. 2018), pp. 99-115, and Virginia Miller, ‘Speaking the Truth in Love (Ep. 4:15): An Analysis of the Findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’, St Mark’s Review, 245.3 (Sept. 2018), pp. 72-98.

3 Andrew Alexandra and Seumas Miller, Integrity Systems for Occupations (New York: Routledge, 2016) and Seumas Miller, Institutional Corruption (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

4 Truth, justice and so on are, of course, not exclusively Christian values.

5 Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros (London: Westminster Press, 1953), famously takes issue with the traditional Thomist conception of charity or love.

6 Benedict XVI, ‘Caritas in Veritate’, Encyclical Letter of the Supreme Pontiff to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women, Religious, the Lay Faithful, and All People of Good Will on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth, 2009.

7 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions’, Book 1, Vol. 16 (Sydney: Commonwealth of Australia, 2017), p. 578. https://www.iicsa.org.uk/investigations/investigation-into-failings-by-the-anglican-church?tab=summary

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9 Keith Kaufman and Marcus Erooga, Risk Profiles for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. A Literature Review (The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse; Sydney: Commonwealth of Australia, 2016), p. 51.

10 Terry, ‘Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors’, pp. 2-3.

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33 Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), Chapter 6.

34 Terry, ‘Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors’, p. 74.

35 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, p. 14.

36 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, p. 13.

37 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 581.

38 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 586.

39 D. Paul Sullins, ‘Is Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy Related to Homosexuality?’ The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 18.4 (2018), pp. 671-97 (682).

40 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, p. 12.

41 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, p. 30.

42 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, p. 12.

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51 IICSA, ‘The Anglican Church. Case Studies: 1. The Diocese of Chichester 2. The response to allegations against Peter Ball. Investigation Report’, (UK) May 2019, p. iii.

52 Lord Carlile, ‘Bishop George Bell: The Independent Review’, (UK) 2017. https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/Bishop%20George%20Bell%20-%20The%20Independent%20Review.pdf (accessed 24 August 2019).

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54 McGarry, ‘Falsely accused of child sexual abuse’.

55 George Pell v The Queen, The High Court of Australia, 7 April 2020.

56 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 587.

57 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, pp. 556-57.

58 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 578. The resulting report, ‘Study of Reported Child Sexual Abuse in the Anglican Church’, was published in May 2009 (the 2009 report).

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61 ACE002357 as cited in IICSA, ‘The Anglican Church. Case Studies: 1. The Diocese of Chichester 2. The response to allegations against Peter Ball. Investigation Report’, p. 11.

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68 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 582.

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70 Rahsida Yosufvai, ‘ “Shame”: PM to Churches, Institutions that Fail to Sign Redress Scheme’, SBS News, 9 March 2018, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/shame-pm-to-Churches-institutions-that-fail-to-sign-to-redress-scheme

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73 ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 581.

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76 Terry, ‘Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors’, p. 74.

77 Sullins, ‘Is Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy Related to Homosexuality?’, p. 683.

78 Sullins, ‘Is Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy Related to Homosexuality?’, p. 683.

79 Los Angeles Times Polls, ‘Catholic Priests in the United States [Machine-Readable Data File]. USLAT2002-471’ (New York: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, 2002).

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82 Ann Cronin, ‘Sexuality in Gerontology: A Heteronormative Presence, a Queer Absence’, in Svein Olav Daatland and Simon Biggs (eds.), Aging and Diversity: Multiple Pathways and Cultural Migrations (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2006).

83 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, p. 56.

84 ACCSA, ‘Analysis of Complaints’, pp. 55-56.

85 Sullins, ‘Is Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy Related to Homosexuality?’, p. 671.

86 Sullins, ‘Is Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy Related to Homosexuality?’, p. 682.

87 Marie Keenan, Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organisational Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

88 As cited in ACCSA, ‘Final Report: Religious Institutions Book 1’, p. 586.

89 Congregation for Catholic Education, Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and Holy Orders. (2005) http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html

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94 While this statistical preponderance in relation to historical complaints of child sexual abuse is well documented it is sometimes claimed that male on male child sexual abuse, as opposed to male on female child sexual abuse, is no longer a problem. Unfortunately, the statistical evidence for this has not been provided in the relevant inquiries, for example, in the ACCSA or IICSA.

95 IICSA, ‘The Anglican Church. Case Studies’, p. 94.

Lord Carlile, ‘Bishop George Bell: The Independent Review’.

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98 Andrew Lansdown, ‘Journeying into Injustice: The National Redress Scheme and the Christian Churches’, https://www.lifeministries.org.au/journeying-into-injustice-the-national-redress-scheme-the-christian-churches/ (accessed 31 May 2020).