Looking into the Clerical Sex Abuse Crisis

LaCroix International
June 26, 2019

https://international.la-croix.com/news/looking-into-the-clerical-sex-abuse-crisis/10408

Activists from the Ending Clergy Abuse organization seen in St. Peter's Square at the end of Pope Francis' Angelus prayer, Vatican City, Feb. 24. (Photo by EPA/GIUSEPPE LAMI/MaxPPP)

The clerical sex abuse phenomenon has become a global crisis in recent years. Local Churches have been asked to address it. It is the responsibility of bishops' conferences, dioceses and religious congregations. It also requires the active involvement of the laity.

Before coming out with concrete measures, it is important to clarify what the crisis or problem is all about, its extent and causes. Before any prognosis, a diagnosis is necessary. There are questions that need to be answered. What is clerical sex abuse all about? How widespread is it?

There are many who see it as the sexual abuse of children or minors by the clergy that has been covered up and allowed to continue due to clericalism.

Others would argue that it is linked with homosexuality, basing their conclusion on the John Jay study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which reported that 81 percent of the...