What Cracked Open the Child Sex Abuse Scandal in the Catholic Church?

Religion and Ethics Report
February 1, 2017

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/what-cracked-open-the-child-sex-abuse-scandal-in-the-catholic-c/8228024

[with audio]

Therese Albrecht, a member of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) demonstrates outside the Catholic archdiocesan chancery office in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images, 2010)

Thomas Doyle remembers exactly what he was doing 33 years ago.

He was a young priest with a big future, working in the Vatican embassy in Washington D.C.

Then an envelope landed on his desk and changed everything – and not just his own life.

It would crack open the scandal of clerical sex abuse and become the biggest crisis for the Catholic Church since the Protestant reformation 500 years ago.

You’ll hear the story from the man himself. Tom Doyle is a Dominican priest, and therapist and long-time advocate for victims of church sex abuse.

Next week, as Australia’s royal commission into institutional sex abuse begins its final year, Fr Doyle will give expert testimony about the roots and the cause of the crisis.