Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church Essay

Sexual abuse can be hard to define because of the many different forms it can take on, the different levels of frequency, the variation of circumstances that can occur. Until a child is fit to function as a self-supporting and informed adult, we have an obligation not to take advantage of their lack of power or protection to inflict damage, or demand submission to acts that are not in their own best interests within. Children are being abused every day in different countries. While commonly accepted wisdom had been that childhood sexual abuse results in long lasting negative outcomes.

“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).

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.

As time progresses on, more reports of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been documented. According to Colangelo and Cooperman, CSA is defined as “the use of a child under 18 years of age as an object of gratification for adult sexual needs and desires.” Another definition of CSA is “sexual abuse [that] occurs whenever one person dominates and exploits another by means of sexual activity or suggestion.” (Hall, M., & Hall, J., 2011) it is difficult to

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 sexual child abuse issue has become of significance within the United States as an alarming focus in the past 30 years. Sexual child abuse (SCA) is such an extensive topic and yet as time progresses this subject is more unrestricted for discussion, various dialogs are provided to make parents and care-takers aware of the signs of potential sexual child abuse. Seminars are provided to and for children to teach methods in identifying any possible perpetrators and report any peculiar behavior they may come across. However, how fortunate are children from other countries in reporting or discussing this same issue when something so violated occurs to them? According to Alpert, J.L., Brown, L.S., & Courtois, C.A., (1998), there have been findings that are constant in supporting that at least 20% of American women and 5% to 10% of American men have experienced some type of sexual abuse in childhood and that such abuse has transpired without regard to origin, race, or socioeconomic status. In an urban study however, which concentrated in Leon, Nicaragua, determined that sexual abuse defined childhood and adolescence as younger than age 19 Olsson, A., Ellsber, E., Berglund, S., Herrera, A., Zelaya, E., Pena, R., Zelaya, F., & Persson, L.A. (2000). Additionally, according to the Nicaraguan study sexual abuse was described as any sexual act by an older individual towards a child who is 12 years of age or younger.

Book Report: Identifying Child Molesters Carla van Dam states in Identifying Child Molesters, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse by Recognizing the Patterns of the Offenders that unlike how it currently is, the primary responsibility to prevent child sexual abuse should be placed on adults, rather than children. Child sexual abuse is the only child safety issue in which the main responsibility is placed on children. Adults take the main responsibility in child road safety, for example, by building cross walks, passing laws to make school buses that are unloading children illegal to pass, and holding children’s hands while crossing the street. It would make sense to establish similar boundaries and guidelines to prevent child sexual abuse. Children, comparably, are often unable to successfully put an end to their sexual abuse after it has already happened.

The information for this presentation was derived from the following databases: Google Scholar, La Trobe Library, and the Child Protection Intranet. This paper focused on journal articles and resources referring to disclosed child sexual in the sacraments of confession. The Royal Commission into Responses to Institutional Sexual Abuse was the main reference conspicuously utilized throughout this paper, as well as the Betrayal of Trust Enquiry and the Criminal Justice Report III and VI.

Children, the very special group of people in this world, who are vulnerable to the sexual abuse the most. Although the federal government as well as NGOs are putting a lot of effort on preventing children from sexual abuse, the situation has not been alleviated. Thus, it is fairly to argue that child sexual abuse (CSA) is one of the most critical social issues in Australia. In 2012, the Royal Commission had conducted a 5-year detailed national-wide survey about the facts, the problems, the barriers, the protection procedures of the CSA phenomenon in Australia. In this report, the Royal Commission highlighted the religious institutions as well as the out-of-home care of children (Davidson, 2017). However, there is one group of people that the

In the U.S there have been issues with justice administration to the minors who are sexually harassed by priest. As a strict follower of the criminal justice in the States of America, in the recent past years, records in my book indicates a changes in the criminal and the judicial system. Being in the forefront as an activist of the criminal rights, I have participated with high interest the state of justice administered and the standpoint of the justice. Victims of interest are the minors who are sexually molested by priests and other clergymen.

The crime of clerical sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests has been publicly documented in many countries; such as, Canada, England, and the United States. One of the traits of any organized crime element is secrecy; secrecy allows them to be able to operate freely. Children are the most vulnerable individuals in our society. As a volunteer sexual abuse counselor, those who have been sexually assaulted by a clergy or anyone have experienced trauma; as well as, emotional and psychological pain. The impact of this crime often grows more painful as time passes. The assault is not only limited to the individuals, but also to those caught up in the euphemism; such as parents, and others who care for the victims.

The meaning of sexual abuse has transformed throughout history, especially when referring to child sexual abuse. In ancient times children were view as property, primarily females. The girls were view as belonging to their father. Therefore what they could do and who they could marry was determined by the father. Their very existence was defined by his need. However, females were not the only ones that were subjects to these treatments, young boys also underwent a similar experience. In ancient Greece boys were given to wealthy men by their parents so that they could be sexually trained and used for their own pleasure. This was thought to be useful in order for them to be ready for adulthood (deMaude, 1995; Rush, 1992; Hilarski, 2008).

John Jay College Research Team. (2004). The nature and scope of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons in the United States, 1950-2002. Washington, DC: United States Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops.

Many priests, after taking the vow of celibacy, discover that they can’t suppress their sexual feelings towards others. Many priests have secret relationships that they hide from their parish. Good Tidings is an organization set up by a woman and her husband, a former Catholic priest, to help priests who have fallen in love to decide whether to leave the priesthood. The organization has been contacted by almost 2000 women who were sexually involved