AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street
Peter Kirkwood | 05 August 2014
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse now under way around Australia will ensure this issue will have public prominence for the foreseeable future.
Indeed it was the impetus for the authors featured in this interview to write their recently published book, Reckoning: The Catholic Church and Child Sexual Abuse (jointly published by Eureka Street and ATF Press), their own thorough study of this thorny issue in the context of the Australian Catholic Church.
Damian Grace and Chris McGillion are eminently qualified to write on this topic, both with distinguished careers: Grace as an academic specialising in applied ethics and political philosophy, and McGillion as a journalist and author who’s devoted most of his career to writing about religion.
In the interview they talk about what they are trying to achieve with the book, the difficulties in being even handed with this issue, why it has taken the Church so long to come to grips with sexual abuse by clergy, and the effect and significance of the Royal Commission. They conclude in the second part of the interview by looking to the future, discussing how the Church might recover from this, and whether Pope Francis is a sign of hope in dealing with it.
Damian Grace has taught ethics, political philosophy, history of political thought and philosophy of religion over the past four decades. He previously lectured at the University of NSW, and is currently an honorary associate in the Department of Government and International Relations at The University of Sydney.
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