“In the early stages, you’re not going to do that, and you’re not going to advertise that. That was only at a later stage. And then you say, I have to go to Maastricht. Before that I never went there, so yeah, it was time to tell my family what I was doing there.”
This quote from Christian shows how disclosure of abuse effects social relationships as a part of redress procedures.
Abuse disclosure
The role of redress in procedures in social relationships
Actor: Christian
Item type: Quote from interview
Date: […]
DoJ Researcher: Naomi Ormskerk
DoJ Research project: [Sexual] abuse – The church (PhD)
Language: English
Context
In 2010, the disclosure of several cases of sexual abuse in institutions operated by the Dutch Catholic Church, ignited a national political debate and led to public outrage. With the disclosure of the abuse, victim- survivors demanded justice from Church authorities and the state. Nevertheless, the available justice measures are invariably solely aimed at primary victims. Whilst relatives are often concurrently named with survivors in redress schemes, it is not evident if and how multi-level narratives are established in justice measures. How do primary and secondary victims – such as family members, partners, and children of victim-survivors – experience justice measures allotted by the Church and the state? And what are ‘lessons learned’ when comparing two seemingly different cases of clergy abuse, namely (sexual) abuse in Church institutions and forced labour of former pupils of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd?
