Since 2002, the Roman Catholic Church has been in crisis over the
sexual abuse of minors by priests and the cover-up of those crimes
by bishops. Over 11,000 alleged victims have reported their
experiences to the Church, and more than 4,700 priests since 1950
have been credibly accused of sexually victimizing minors. The
Church has paid over one billion dollars to adults who claim to
have been sexually abused by priests and there is no end in sight
to these lawsuits.
Celibacy, homosexuality in the priesthood, the infiltration into
the priesthood of secular moral relativism, too much liberalism in
the Church since Vatican II, damaging rollback of Vatican II
reforms by conservative prelates--all have been suggested as causes
for the crisis. This book, however, begins with the premise that,
because the pattern of abuse and cover-up was so similar across the
world, there is something fundamentally awry with Church traditions
and power structures in relationship to sexuality and sexual
abuse.
Specifically, in chapters on suffering and sadomasochism, bodies
and gender, desire and sexuality, celibacy and homosexuality, the
author concludes that aspects of the Catholic theology of sexuality
set the stage for the abuse of minors and its cover-up.
Frawley-O'Dea also analyzes the American bishops' lack of pastoral
care and tendency towards clerical narcissism--the belief that the
needs of the hierarchy represent the needs of the wider Church--as
central factors in the scandal. She balances this criticism with a
discussion of the backgrounds of the bishops presiding over the
crisis and the challenges they faced in their relationships with
the Pope and Vatican officials.
Drawing on twenty years of clinical experience, she imagines the
dynamics of sexual abuse both from the victim's point of view and
from the priest's, and she probes why the Church hierarchy, fellow
priests, and lay people were silent for so long. Finally,
Frawley-O'Dea examines factors internal to the Church and outside
of it that drew this scandal into the public square and kept it
there.
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