Clergy Sexual Abuse Case Study

The other major dilemma facing the Roman Catholic Church today is the pedophilia crisis, especially on how to deal with it. This Church has been unsettled by numerous and credible

“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).

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.

Michael Rezendes worked for the “Boston Globe” on the Spotlight team, which was small team of people who worked for months on a specific project to make a massive headline on the cover of the “Globe” about every other month. In 2001, Rezendes was working on a small story, one with some potential, alongside his team when they discovered a massive controversy hidden in the dusty files of law offices, parishes, and their own newspaper- the veiled crimes of the assaults on children by local Catholic priests, after which the priests were never convicted.

This case is a very sensitive situation since it pertains to a pastor in the Christian Church. I chose this particular case since I am also an active member in the Christian community. This pastor who had been accused of having sexual relations with four women in his congregation was convicted of four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and one count of a pattern or practice to engage in sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist (STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Patrick EDOUARD, Appellant. No. 12-1899).

Mike Rezendes is a member of the Spotlight team and made it his obligation to inform the public about the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church with priests. Rezendes was raised as a Catholic, so to find out the priest were raping little children especially boys he wanted to know why these

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

With the Pandora’s Box opened, we may find ourselves forced to rediscover morality due to our natural tendencies. This does not mean accepting adult-child relationships. Figure 3 indicates if we are serious about protecting children, then that ultimately requires some level of understanding, which is a problem for most because that is dangerously close to compassion. On the contrary, the risk they pose is the very reason why we need to support pedophiles who do not want to become sex offenders. We all want the same thing. We do not want them to offend nor their potential victims to offend. In 2008, Michael Seto, a forensic psychologist, published a book stating that the onset of pedophilia is right around the stages of puberty, as with any other sexual orientation. I believe we can prevent a greater number of victims if we put more energy into early detection and providing support before the first offense occurs, rather than solely relying on punishment after the fact. We need to be thinking about the children that pedophiles once were and catch them at their vulnerable stages, which are during puberty. There we can find a sense of compassion and support to want to help. In 2014, Margo Kaplan, an associate professor at Rutgers School of Law, wrote an op-ed in New York Times stating that pedophilia is neurologically rooted, supporting Cantor’s research.

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?)

Imagine being robbed of your innocence in a matter of seconds. Imagine not being able to speak out due to threats and fear of seeking help and not being taken seriously. Troubling, is it not? Sexual abuse has always been a problem in society that can affect anyone. Sexual abuse brings along many negative outcomes; however, throughout the years, sexual abuse has been a factor that has always been ignored. Even though sexual abuse has had many attempts to be avoided in various environments, all have failed.

Sexual abuse to children happens across every socioeconomic status, ethnic, cultural, religion and education. Getting treatment for a victim of child sexual abuse is a difficult process because of the lack of trust by the child. When child sexual abuse occurs the victim’s family has a difficult time talking about the abuse, which leads to the family pretending the abuse never happened. Once the family

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.