Clerical Sexual Misconduct: A Foundational Conversation

In 2018, as accounts of clerical sexual misconduct in Chile, Honduras, and the United States roiled the Catholic Church, an international meeting of experts in journalism, law, pastoral care, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology, was convened to study the incidence of clerical sexual abuse of males. Under the skilled editorship of Jane F. Adolphe and Ronald J. Rychlak, Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis is the result of that meeting and the incisive, insightful studies which it generated.

• Part I: Challenges—Church Culture and the Social Sciences explores the data on clerical sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and also exposes prevalent cultural myths which conceal the roots of the problem.
• Part II: Contributing Factors—Extra-Church and Intra-Church Influences situates the problem of clerical sexual abuse amidst the surrounding problems, including the broader cultural roots of abuse, Catholic organizational culture, and clericalism.
• Part III: Consequences—Legal and Policy Issues examines Canon Law, Criminal Law, and Civil Law and their impact on the punishment and control of abuse.
• Part IV: Charting the Course Forward—Biblical, Theological and Pastoral Reflections identifies the Catholic roots of a true and abiding solution.

Results of this conference were published in a book entitled: Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis

About the authors:

Jane F. Adolphe is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, in Naples, Florida, Adjunct Professor, at the University of Notre Dame, School of Law, Sydney, Australia, and former expert of the Holy See, Secretariat of State, Section for Relations with States. She has co-edited several books: The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East: Prevention, Prohibition, and Prosecution; Equality and Non-Discrimination: Catholic Roots, Current Challenges; and St. Paul, the Natural Law, and Contemporary Legal Theory.

Ronald J. Rychlak is Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi, advisor to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations, and serves on advisory boards for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. He has written several books, including Hitler, the War, and the Pope; Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis; and Disinformation (with Ion M. Pacepa). He also edited American Law from a Catholic Perspective: Through a Clearer Lens.