Catholic Bishops and Sexual Abuse: Power, Constraint, and Institutional Context

Abstract

Most readers of this special issue will be familiar with the stomach-turning details of the child sex abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic Church. Long an ugly secret within the church itself, this century has brought with it escalating revelations of criminal sexual abuse by Catholic priests and bishops so depraved, widespread, and shocking to the consciences of observers, that it also challenged those observers’ imaginations as well. This paper addresses the astounding fact that when faced with this abuse and violence by Catholic clergy, the hierarchy of the church opted, for the most part, to protect the clerical predators who threatened and attacked vulnerable children rather than to shield them from harm. Instead, they chose to protect the institutional church that was facilitating that harm from the “scandal” that would ensue from transparency, revelation, and accountability. How on earth, people ask now with the benefit of hindsight (and with operating moral consciences), could any responsible adults—much less “men of God” tasked with nurturing the spiritual lives and advancing the salvation of their congregants—have acted so callously? What possible value could come before protecting small children and adolescents from predators who purposefully used the social standing of the church and the deep trust of its people to facilitate their crimes? Why, to put it bluntly, were so many bishops so thoroughly derelict in carrying out what might fairly be described as their most minimal moral duty?