Catholic Bishops Should Have Experts at Conference to Address Global Clerical Sexual Abuse

By Thomas G. Plante
San Francisco Chronicle
February 6, 2019

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Catholic-bishops-should-have-experts-at-13595916.php

FILE - In this April 18, 2018 file photo, bishops line up to greet Pope Francis during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. Catholic doctrine mandates an all-male priesthood, on the grounds that Jesus' apostles were men. A decades-long campaign for women's ordination has made little headway and some advocates of that change have been excommunicated. Women do play major roles in Catholic education, health care and parish administration. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Catholic bishops from across the globe will meet Feb. 21-24 at the Vatican for a much anticipated conference to discuss global clerical sexual abuse. While clerics might know a lot about theology, church history and church law, they aren’t experts on research and best practices in child protection, child abuse or pedophilia. Those experts aren’t invited to the conference. And it is a shame.

Without experts in attendance and actively involved, we can expect that the most conservative voices in the church will try to blame the clergy sexual abuse crisis on homosexual clerics or liberal approaches to church teachings that began to get traction after Vatican II. The most liberal voices may blame the problem on mandated clerical celibacy or the fact that only men can be priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

Both groups would be wrong. And their views may lead to unproductive or counterproductive directions for interventions and resolutions of this problem that have plagued the institution for too long.

What the experts might say, if invited and allowed to speak, would be that best practices in child protection and screening adults who work with children are readily available and can be enlisted to make the church and other organizations much safer than they are now. Among the most commonsense solutions: incorporate careful screening and training of those who work with children and teens into any plan to protect minors both in and outside of church communities.

Additionally, social engineering strategies, such as using the “two-deep rule,” where adults can’t be alone with children or vulnerable others unless another responsible adult is present, should be required as well as the use of lay review boards of experts to review all accusations of clerical misbehavior — including those of bishops.

Certainly, a uniform plan can be a challenge when you think of the remarkable diversity in resources, perspectives and traditions across the global church, but experts could over time help develop policies and procedures that keep children safe and prevent at-risk adults from entering the ministry and having access to vulnerable children and teens.

Much progress already has been made since clergy sexual abuse became front-page news in 2002. More progress can continue if these high-ranking clerics could listen to those who actually specialize in this area. After all, if you want someone to fly your aircraft across the country, you’ll want a skilled and experienced pilot.

Sadly, much misinformation and too many myths on clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church continue to dominate the press and elsewhere, including among some high-ranking bishops. One can only hope that those who have the power to keep children safe in the church and other institutions will use the best and readily available research data and not hysteria or particular political agendas to make their decisions.

Clergy sexual abuse is a generally solvable problem, but only if level heads, best practices and quality data are used. It is high time that the church use it.

Thomas G. Plante is the Augustin Cardinal Bea professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has evaluated and treated both clergy abuse victims and offenders and has conducted research on clergy abuse for more than 30 years.