DENVER (CO)
Crux
October 8, 2018
By Christopher White
Amid this summer’s wave of sexual abuse scandals, the Catholic apostolate Courage lauded its founder, Father John Harvey, who died in 2010, for his work with priests who “experienced same sex attractions and were striving to live chaste celibate lives.”
Yet while Courage proclaimed Harvey a “prudent spiritual director” and “a keen student of moral theology and psychology,” a review of his writings and public speeches raises new questions about how his approach to homosexuality – his belief that one could, in fact, change his or her sexual orientation – seems to have influenced his approach to treating abusive priests, advocating, at times, for their rehabilitation and return to ministry.
Throughout his career, Harvey often had a platform to offer U.S. bishops such advice. In addition, his close association with a prominent psychologist who also argued against the permanent removal of abuser priests, and who was a sought-after expert for treatment, has also has led critics to wonder about their influence in shaping the U.S. Church’s early response to the sexual abuse crisis.
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