Catholic Church Child Abuse Case Study

I shadowed a social worker who was interviewing a mother coming from a polish background who's child had been referred to the social services by the school ,as being suspected of child abuse. Despite of the child's outstanding academic performance and his good overall appearance ,the boy in question disclosed to his teacher that he sometimes get smacked by his parents. When mother was questioned about the concerns raised, she said that in her culture this act wouldn't be considered as a form of abuse. She attributed her behaviour to her religious beliefs, to a collective understanding of her people about correction and discipline concept which is transmitted from generation to generation. Apart from the communication difficulties that occurred inevitably due to the mother's poor English, the social worker was not very confident in challenging the parents harmful practices which , especially when no visible signs of abuse or distress had not been

“In the 60s, the Catholic Church in Massachusetts began hearing complaints that Father James Porter was sexually molesting children. Rather than relieving him of his duties, the ecclesiastical authorities simply moved him from one parish to another between 1960 and 1967, actually providing him with a fresh supply of unsuspecting families and innocent children to abuse” (Ericsson 162).

Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, through action or failure to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. According to The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, at a minimum, child abuse and neglect is defined as, "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation"; or "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm (Children 's Bureau, 2010)." The law recognizes a child as being any person who is under the age of 18. The law is broken into 2 sections, and each section treats the idea of child maltreatment in different ways. Criminally, those who abuse children are able to be arrested and prosecuted in court. Civil statutes say that people who suspect a child of being abused are mandated to identify and report it.

In over a period of years, an increasing amount of attention has been shed to the problem of child sexual abuse in the church. While churches, and other facilities which care for children, have had their experience of this problem, most attention has been brought to the abuse in the Catholic Church. Around the world, case after case has been seen in the press of clergy and members of religious orders being charged with sex offenses against children. Some of these cases go back decades. The issue has certainly brought attention around the world. The reason why, is the question that ponders in everyone mind.

I have been in a country where this kind of sexual abuse, like sexually assaulting a child, is being kept away from media. Some authorities will not make any legal actions regarding this, instead, they will do their best to cover this up to protect the wrongdoers. In fact, there was a situation where “priests with pending court cases were acquitted and even quietly reinstated to pastoral duties.”

Surely humanity suffers when the function of sex corrupts by representing it as a service or commodity and religion corrupts when it is a matter of dry rituals or abstract doctrines; consequently, underscoring the situation with confusing sex scandals. As a result, sexual misconduct is a major issue in the churches today. Child molestation within the churches reeks of priests being caught-up in lust and unmistakably is a real sign that the brotherhood lacks guidance of the profound reality of the LORD’S sexual identity. Notably, in these past several decades, an enormous amount of priests, along with various other ‘proclaimed’ Christians, predominantly waver with uncertainty, puzzled why they have sexual desires and totally unaware of their Divine sexual heritage. Concurrently, just as the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church also suffers from sex scandals worldwide. Figures released to the Associated Press in 2007, reveals that the numbers of these sex abuse cases appear higher in the Protestant Church than in the Catholic Church. At any rate, the process in obtaining Protestant sex abuse statistics evolves as harder to come by and sketchier because the denominations happen to be less centralized than the Catholic Church. Various Protestant congregations occur independently, making reporting even more difficult.

The Boston Catholic Church’s dangerous employment of power prevented justice and instead allowed for the growth in number of churches and children that were exposed to the sexually abusive priests through the concealment of the abuse.

The Jewish Community Watch is an organization that has changed the way the Orthodox Jewish community looks at and deals with internal sexual predators and allegations of such behavior. According to the mission statement on their website, "Jewish Community Watch protects our children from child sexual abuse, and helps victims heal. We Educate the public to promote child safety, increase awareness, and eliminate stigma. We actively Prevent abuse of children by warning about suspected predators and working to put them behind bars. We help victims Heal by getting them the support they need" (“Jewish Community Watch Homepage,” n.d.).

Their coverage revelaed that Chicago was not exempt from these allegations. One priest, the Rev. William J. Cloutier, who was accused of abusing and threatening a 13 year old boy in Cook county quickly resigned before he was put up on trial. The victim who reamined ananoymous throught the preceeding of the trial was eventually silenced by a private plea, and ex Rev. William J. Cloutier was never senteced to any jail time. However, in other similar cases victims were not willing to take a plea and revecied some form of justice, like in the case of Rev. Norbert J. who was incarcerated after it was found that he was abusing children in various parishes around Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs.Recently Thousands of documents from the personnel files of the Archdiocese of Chicago were released and exposed the history of abuse by priests and responses from bishops. In each case, the priests were deceased or were ousted from ministry, and in most cases, the allegations were never proved in a criminal court. but what I would like to research is how victims were able to come forth and take a stand from an organization that wanted them to keep quiet ? And how the church tried to cover up the allegations as well as how they tried to cut deals with accused priests and bishops? All of this research will help my overall goal of seeing how victims were able to take a stand and how the Church’s power in Chicago was effected by

The current problem is the continued rise in child abuse and neglect today. Within the United States, the problem of child abuse and neglect is far much common than most people would like to admit. Sanchez (2012) stated that child maltreatment is a global epidemic and a major social problem in the United States resulting in at least 740, 000 visits to hospital emergency departments and more than $124 in child welfare, criminal justice, and health care. Norman, Byambaa, De, Butchart, Scott, and Vos (2012) also observed that child abuse and neglect is a global problem that is mostly perpetrated by parental guardians and parents. Sexual abuse is the infringement of a child’s

The rediscovery of child abuse can be largely contributed to the news media for highlighting the inhumane treatment of children by parents and guardians. Many children were being viciously punished by parents and guardians as a form of corrective training. The harsh punishment and beating would have resulted in severe injuries to the child and their wellbeing. The disturbing circumstances reported by the media drew strong condemnation from people and organization around the nation. The highlighted problem by the media helped mobilize a very strong social movement to deal with the problems and issues relating to child abuse. The movement then quickly highlighted some very important aspect of child abuse such as sexual exploitation, incest, gross

In a similar way to Abigail, the Catholic Church has used methods of diversion by hushing victims or as The Age reported, “moved (paedophilic priests) from Parish to Parish”. Such as (more evidence?)

After the unsealing of church records, it was found that the Catholic Church was well aware of the dark history surrounding some of its priests. In addition, a vast number of child sexual abuse complaints were found, implicating several hundred Catholic priests.

The church had a study done by researchers at John Jay College. In two major reports spanning from 1950 to 2010, the church had the researchers report on the scope and nature of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests. The research disclosed some important issues (John Jay College Research Team, 2004). The major findings disclosed there was no single cause as a predictor of abuse, 75% of the abuses were alleged to have taken place from 1960-1984, there were about 3,000 priests accused of abuse

These are activities that are targeted at members of the community and general population with the aim to raise awareness about the problems of child abuse. It involves an approach that targets helping families and children before child abuse occurs and not intervening after the harm has been done. This is very essential as every child deserves to grow up and be nurtured in an environment that is safe and stable which helps in the child’s total development such as the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. These strategies can be via a myriad of programs such as educational programs via public awareness programs, public service announcements, parent education groups, child educational programs, family support and strengthening programs.