REPORTING CLERGY SEXUAL MISCONDUCT AGAINST ADULTS TO ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AUTHORITIES: AN ANALYSIS OF SURVIVOR PERSPECTIVES Stephen Edward de Weger BA; Grad. Dip. Teaching (Secondary); Grad. Cert. Social Science; Master of Justice Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Justice Faculty of Law Queensland University of Technology 2020 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: Date: 20 October 2020 i Acknowledgements Firstly, I wish to acknowledge the support, and love of my wife and soul-mate of 33 years, Liz. Her levelling presence has also calmed the sometimes anxious elements in me as well as the depressive elements of this topic. Her valuable intelligent insights and input often also presented angles hitherto unrealised. With her, I want to acknowledge the constant encouragement of my children who had to live through my roller-coaster ride of research but who supported and encouraged me always. The second group of people needing deep thanks are, of course, the participants in this study (and all adults survivors of clergy misconduct). Their brave and deeply insightful contributions are the core of this study. It is hoped that it has been for them a cathartic and growth experience. Thank you all. I hope I have done you justice. Thirdly, my supervisors, Prof. John Scott, Prof. Ben Mathews, and Assoc. Prof. Kelly Richards have been so supportive of this sometimes grumpy and belligerent mature-aged student. They have steered me through mazes of tangential distractions, emotional and subjective bents and into this final product which will now hopefully benefit those about and for whom it was written. I would also here like to acknowledge and thank my Master’s supervisor, Dr Jodi Death, for helping me get back into academia and research at a time when I was somewhat rudderless. Since I began my first study (2013), three major figures involved in researching clergy sexual abuse/misconduct, have passed away. I am in debt to them and their work. They are Anson Shupe (1948 – 2015), Diana Garland (1950 – 2015), and Richard Sipe (1932 –2018). All three have been highly instrumental in my Masters and PhD research. I would particularly like to thank Richard Sipe for clarifying that my research was indeed vital, and for his encouragement to keep going. In the short time I had to interact with him before his death in 2018, he became a mentor for me as well as a source of data and thought that has yet to be fully acknowledged by the RCC. I want to also deeply thank my counsellor/therapist and for all the depth of human knowledge acquired in the process. I am seriously in debt to this highly skilled, compassionate, and informed yet humble man. Thank you, Jim. Finally, I am deeply grateful for the practical assistance granted to me in the form of my Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. I could not have done this without that scholarship. ii Abstract Based on estimations of experts in the field, and on the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA), since the 1950s, there have been around 28,920 adults, both women and men, who became ‘sexually involved’ with clergy in some manner within the Australian Roman Catholic Church (RCC). One of the main aims of this study was to explore RCC response cultures as revealed in the narratives of those who have experienced such sexual involvement as clergy sexual misconduct against adults (CSMAA), and who then reported these events. This qualitative study sought to also describe these reporting experiences. In-depth interviews were undertaken with nine people: eight survivors (six women and three men) and one whistle-blower. The findings were that these survivors at least did not find healing, compassion, or justice, and often experienced even further traumatisation. Further to participant descriptions of reporting CSMAA, the literature and reviewed sources revealed an RCC clergy culture where ‘backstage’, clergy sexual activity is considered somewhat ‘acceptable’ by at least 50% of clergy, but ‘frontstage’, the rules of celibacy/chastity are presented as the norm, and as being followed. It was found that the cognitive dissonance that such a dualism creates, also creates a culture which does not favour those who report clergy sexual misconduct because doing so threatens to expose these backstage realities. Many participants revealed ‘slips of the tongue’ on behalf of those clergy dealing with their cases, which revealed their true negative beliefs about both the person they were dealing with and of their complaints, often suggesting that these events were merely ‘affairs’. This dualistic culture generates a serious lack of desire to qualify when clergy sexual ‘activity’ stops being an ‘affair’ and becomes clergy sexual ‘misconduct’. This study found that within the current RCC in Australia, there is a lack of any clear and informed definition of clergy sexual misconduct particularly as events falling under a broader professional framework. It was concluded that if CSMAA was to be responded to efficiently, justly, and professionally, such events need to be framed not within RCC moral frameworks, teachings, or culture, but within a broader secular and legal framework of professional misconduct, and dealt with accordingly. iii The second main element of this study was the application of Sociologist of Religion, Anson Shupe’s theory of clergy malfeasance and in particular the application and impact of his modes and tactics of neutralisation in the lives of the participants in this study. This theory investigates how elite institutions seek to neutralise revelations of deviance, including via reporting, within its walls. All participants presented elements of Shupe’s tactics in varying levels. However, based on the narratives presented, and the broader literature, this study also saw fit to include an additional 3 new tactics of neutralisation and 6 new corresponding modes in order to fully accommodate the experiences of the participants in this study. The end result of this whole study is the development of a framework and language with which one can approach CSMAA, and the reporting thereof, in the RCC and beyond. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Original Authorship ..........................................................................................i Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vii List of Acronyms ..............................................................................................................viii Key terms and their definitions as used in this study ............................................................ ix Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................... 1 General Background ................................................................................................... 1 Context ...................................................................................................................... 4 Purpose and related methodology ............................................................................... 5 Significance and Scope............................................................................................... 7 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2: CSMAA in the RCC: From Historical Contexts to New Definitions .................................................................................................. 11 Introduction: Within which framework should CSMAA be discussed/evaluated? ...... 11 The socio-anthropological background: Clergy as ‘profession’ ................................. 16 The RCC and its clergy: Power founded on myth...................................................... 19 Two crucial myths which answer two important questions ........................................ 24 CSMAA - ‘Sin’, ‘Misconduct’, ‘Abuse’, or ‘Crime’? ............................................... 36 Contextualising CSMAA within a Professional Misconduct Framework. .................. 38 Does having a continuum of CSMAA/CSAWA contexts affect reporting? ................ 47 CSMAA and reporting thereof according to RCC official documents ........................ 56 Legal issues concerning CSMAA in the RCC and the reporting thereof. ................... 63 The base-line ............................................................................................................ 67 Towards a definition of professional/clergy sexual misconduct against adults