“It wasn’t the intention of the complaints procedure to mentally destroy the people who filed a complaint. But the lawyers of the opposing party did their best to simply break those people, by pretending that it was a legal case. They legalised everything and that was not what this procedure was about. So I don’t have anything decent to say about the lawyers of the opposing party and the opposing party themselves, because they hired those lawyers. They were even warned by the Complaints Committee.“
↳Preventing future abuse
Actor: Mary
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?
