Unique Betrayal: Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Context of the Catholic Religious Tradition

• NCJ Number: 224800
• Journal: Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 17 Issue: 3/4 Dated: November 2008 Pages: 255-269
• Author(s): Joseph J. Guido
• Date Published: November 2008
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For related articles in this special issue see NCJ-224796-224799, and NCJ-224801-07

Annotation

This study outlines Catholic theological beliefs and how these beliefs complicated the impact of sexual abuse when the perpetrator is a member of the Catholic clergy.

Abstract

This study considered clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse (CPSA) in the context of religious beliefs and communities. It examined the Catholic culture from three perspectives. First, Catholicism is described in terms of a sacramental worldview that distinguishes it from other denominations and from which quintessentially Catholic rites, rituals, and symbols derive. Second, the implications of this sacramental worldview for understanding the present crisis are examined. It is argued that it is the sacramental understanding of priests and bishops that lends added weight and meaning to the abuse and that may constitute what is unique about the crisis in the Catholic Church. Third, ways in which therapists and other caregivers might assist in the repair of sacramental meaning for survivors are suggested. Catholicism is often described as a sacramental culture, maintaining that the created order of people and things manifests an otherwise invisible divine order. For Catholics, this is more than a matter of symbols. In this sense, the priest-perpetrator is not only a trusted and honored figure but is by virtue of ordination another Christ, and his betrayal of that trust and dishonoring of that role cannot be separated from his sacramental character and meaning. Precisely because Catholicism suffuses the created order with added meaning, the violation of that order by the violation of an adolescent’s body, or of a church or its sacristy is also a violation of the meaning that it is meant to convey. The implication of the violation as a violation of trust and worldview are significant for victims of clergy abuse and are important for therapists to understand as healing the mind may require healing the soul. References