ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which survivors constructed themselves and achieved restoration by engaging with public inquiries, particularly the Victorian parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations. The Victorian Inquiry ultimately recognised that there were three core themes that emerged from their work: prevention, response, and access to justice. Public inquiry forms a different type of justice. The justice that survivors of clergy abuse so often seek is not only about consequences for the church, such as criminal prosecution or being forced to contribute to restitution—it is very much about the public shaming and accountability of the Church being forced to give an account of its misdeeds. As political subjects, many survivors have sought to engage with other means of holding Christian institutions to account for child sexual abuse (CSA) by clergy. What state inquiries into CSA by clergy represent is a particular tool of governance in a political context of neoliberalism.
