Institutional responses to child sexual abuse: how a moral conversation with its lawyers might contribute to cultural change in a faith-based institution. (3rd July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Foley, Tony
• Is Part Of: Legal ethics. Volume 18:Number 2(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 164
• Page End: 181
• Publication Date: 2015-07-03
• Subjects: Legal ethics -- Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse -- lawyer behaviour -- moral conversations; Legal ethics -- Periodicals; 174.305
• DOI: 10.1080/1460728x.2015.1125652
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1460-728X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper examines in detail the quality of the relationship the Catholic Church in its Sydney Archdiocese had with its lawyers in the John Ellis matter as revealed in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse inquiry. It identifies the particular moral perspective embedded in its lawyers' adversarial approach and asks whether a different approach involving explicit moral conversations might have better served the Church's avowed pastoral ethos.