Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church : Gender, Power, and Organizational Cuture by
A meticulously researched inside look at child sexual abuse by clergy, this exhaustive, hard-hitting analysis weaves together interviews with abusive priests and church historical and administrative details to propose a new way of thinking about clerical sexual offenders. Linking the personaland the institutional, researcher and therapist Marie Keenan locates the problem of child sexual abuse not exclusively in individual pathology, but also within larger systemic factors, such as the very institution of priesthood itself, the Catholic take on sexuality, clerical culture, powerrelations, governance structures of the Catholic Church, the process of formation for priesthood and religious life, and the complex manner in which these factors coalesce to create serious institutional risks for boundary violations, including child sexual abuse. Keenan draws on the priests' ownwords not to excuse their horrific crimes, but to offer the first in-depth account of a tragic, multi-faceted phenomenon.What emerges is a troubling portrait of a Church in crisis and a series of recommendations that call for nothing less than a new ecclesiology and a new, more critical theology. Only through radical institutional reform, Keenan argues, can a more representative and accountable Church emerge.Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church is a unique reference for scholars of the Church and therapists who work with both victims and offenders, as well as a forward-thinking blueprint for reform.
Child sexual abuse inquiries and the Catholic Church : reassessing the evidence by
This book is an objective, evidence-based analysis of the empirical findings, methodologies and conclusions of the three main national inquiries (Irish, US, Australian) into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and of the responses of the Catholic Church to child sexual abuse. As such, it stands in contrast to the overall media reporting of the problem. Based on the evidence of these inquiries it draws two major conclusions. Firstly, child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the countries surveyed, while widespread during the 60s and 70s, is largely an historical problem. Secondly, safe-guarding mechanisms introduced into the Catholic Church since the 90s have been effective in curbing child sexual abuse.
Child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church : an interpretive review of the literature and public inquiry reports by
This study reviews the literature concerning child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia and overseas, drawing on 26 key international and Australian inquiry reports and the research literature. Two principal research questions5 have guided this study: what individual and organisational policies, practices, processes and attitudes have pre-disposed, influenced, and facilitated individuals in their perpetration of sexual and physical abuse against children, and how have theological frameworks, organisational structures, governance, and institutional cultures contributed to this abuse and the Church responses to this abuse? It also considers whether child sexual abuse has been a recurring phenomenon in the Catholic Church over the past two thousand years, and what data exists on the actual prevalence of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and religious.
Clericalism : The Death of Priesthood by
Searching for answers in the midst of the sexual abuse crisis in the church, many blamed the clerical culture. But what exactly is this clerical culture? We may know it when we see it, but how can we 'whether clergy or laypeople 'go about dismantling it and putting in place a new, healthy culture? George Wilson has spent decades working with organizations to help them discover, and often recover, their foundational calling. He is also a Jesuit priest engaged in the lives of congregations. In Clericalism: The Death of Priesthoodhe brings together both capacities and gives his sense of the challenges facing the church. As members of the church, Wilson maintains, we are all responsible for creating a clerical culture. And we are also responsible for that culture's transformation. Clericalismaids this transformation by helping us examine some underlying attitudes that create and preserve destructive relationships between ordained and laity. After looking at the crisis and establishing where we are now, this book challenges us with concrete suggestions for changing behaviors. We are lay and ordained, but all baptized into the royal priesthood of 1 Peter 2:9, all called to spread the Gospel and do the work of God's love in the world. Ultimately, this is a hopeful book, looking for the restoration of a genuine priesthood, free of clericalism, in which we become truly united in Christ..
Health and integrity in church and ministry : an ecumenical conversation on the task of rebuilding and renewal after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by
Health and Integrity in Church and Ministry was an ecumenical conversation on the task of rebuilding and renewal after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, held in Melbourne, Australia from 27–29 August 2018.
Reckoning: the Catholic Church and Child Sexual Abuse by
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has focused more public attention on the Catholic Church in Australia than on any other organisation subject to this investigation. It is a cathartic moment for the Church. Public disillusionment and a deep distrust within the community about the way the Church has handled clerical sexual abuse cases could prove more damaging -- or more transformative -- than any findings from the Commission itself. This book examines the public discussion around the child abuse issue and its construction as a problem of Catholicism. It considers what the Australian Catholic response to the greatest crisis in its history will mean in the long term for: the Australian Church's credibility; the reputation of its schools, hospitals and welfare organisations and for its future cultural and political influence.
Trapped in a Closed World : Catholic Culture and Sexual Abuse by