A Review of Organizational Laws and Management Policies of the Roman Catholic Church to Address Clerical Child Sexual Abuse in the 20th Century
Date
2022
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Publisher
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Abstract
During the early 1980’s and 1990’s, clerical child sexual abuse (cCSA) in the Roman
Catholic Church (RCC) gained public attention, escalating into a major scandal by the beginning
of the 21st century. The Vatican’s response and ignorance expressed globally created the
impression that the RCC had encountered the problem of cCSA for the first time, only recently;
in the 20th century. The ecclesiastical authorities sought to justify their strategies of nonreporting of abuse to secular authorities, silencing victims, and transferring abusing priests to
other locations, as a result of being surprised and confused by a phenomenon, they had been
unaware of. The ‘Nolan Report’ commented that the RCC’s ignorance of pedophilia
compounded by a desire to save the reputation of the Church, and a Christian instinct to forgive,
led to failures to recognize the extent of abuse, scrutinize candidates for priesthood, and
appropriately convey suspicion or proof of alleged misconduct.
This paper examines the organizational laws and management policies developed by the
RCC in the 20th century to address reported cCSA and highlights the perception of ignorance of
the ecclesiastical authorities regarding pedophilia and deviant sexual behaviors amongst clerics
as incredulous, in light of historical evidence. Such evidence includes knowledge, awareness,
and development of organizational laws and internal institutional management strategies at the
highest level of ecclesiastical governance, a continuously developed culture of secrecy, and an
organized effort to avoid intervention of secular authorities.
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Keywords
International Resources, Pakistan, law, policy, child sexual abuse, clergy abuse, review, culture of secrecy
Citation
Rashid, F. (2022). A Review of Organizational Laws and Management Policies of the Roman Catholic Church to Address Clerical Child Sexual Abuse in the 20th Century. University of Massachusetts Amherst.