Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
  • Publication
    Research on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church and Restorative Justice
    (World Society of Victimology, 2022-06-09)
    This presentation addresses Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church in Ireland and the potential for Restorative Justice.
      49
  • Publication
    Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: A Multilayered Perspective
    (Peter Lang, 2013)
    Child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is a multi-layered, multifaceted problem that needs to be understood and addressed in all its complexity. Approaches that focus only on individual actors without taking sufficient account of structural and systemic considerations not alone marginalise individuals but fail in the ultimate aim of prevention, healing and repair.
      204
  • Publication
    'Them and Us': The Clergy Child Sexual Offender as 'Other'
    (Columba Press, 2009)
    This article investigates child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in two jurisdictions, Ireland and the United States. These jurisdictions are selected because most of the research on this topic emanates from the United States and because my own research with Catholic clergy is situated in Ireland. The article begins by taking a critical look at the dominant discourses of child sexual abuse, as these discourses form part of the context in which sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is currently understood in Ireland. Drawing on sociological and psychological perspectives as well as my own research and clinical experience the article then examines what is reliably known about Catholic clergy who have sexually abused minors and about the role or otherwise of the institution of the Catholic Church in relation to these abuses. Whilst much of the literature from the United States provides the quantitative data on the nature and scope of the problem, my research provides the qualitative picture of the lived experiences of Catholic clergy who have sexually abused minors. The article concludes by arguing that if we truly want to help children and create a safer society for all men, women and children in Ireland, then we need to get beyond a blaming stance and towards more preventative and rehabilitative/restorative perspectives.
      771
  • Publication
    'Them and Us': The Clerical Child Sexual Offender as 'Other'
    (Columba Press, 2011)
    This article investigates child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in two jurisdictions, Ireland and the United States. These jurisdictions are selected because most of the research on this topic emanates from the United States and because my own research with Catholic clergy is situated in Ireland. The article begins by taking a critical look at the dominant discourses of child sexual abuse, as these discourses form part of the context in which sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is currently understood in Ireland. Drawing on sociological and psychological perspectives as well as my own research and clinical experience the article then examines what is reliably known about Catholic clergy who have sexually abused minors and about the role or otherwise of the institution of the Catholic Church in relation to these abuses. Whilst much of the literature from the United States provides the quantitative data on the nature and scope of the problem, my research provides the qualitative picture of the lived experiences of Catholic clergy who have sexually abused minors. The article concludes by arguing that if we truly want to help children and create a safer society for all men, women and children in Ireland, then we need to get beyond a blaming stance and towards more preventative and rehabilitative/restorative perspectives.
      165
  • Publication
    Masculinity, relationships and Context: Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church
    (Social Care Ireland, 2015-12)
    This paper provides background to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland and outlines the particular Irish dimensions to the problem. It argues that a systemic perspective offers best promise to conceptualise the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and outlines. In turning to how the problem has been investigated by statutory and church commissioned inquiries and commissions of investigation (Murphy, 2009; Ryan, 2009) it becomes apparent that how the past is investigated and framed is not merely a neutral matter, but one that is complexly interwoven with present politic and changing social conditions. In offering a critique of the Murphy Report into the Handling of Abuse Complaints in the Archdioceses of Dublin (Murphy, 2009), as one example of a statutory commission of investigation in Ireland, some significant legal and methodological issues are raised that give cause for concern regarding some of the findings and judgements made. What cannot be disputed however is the fact that thousands of children were abused by Catholic clergy in Ireland and worldwide. We owe it to them to get to the full truth of what occurred and to prevent its re-occurrence. In considering a way forward for the church, victims of clergy must be placed at the centre of the church’s response, other key actors must be brought together in dialogue and the church must deal with the systemic genesis of the problem in a spirit of institutional reform and transformation.
      389
  • Publication
    Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church
    (Manchester University Press, 2014-11)
    The clergy abuse situation in Ireland is often seen as unique, in part because of the close relationship between the Irish Church and the new Irish state founded in 1922. It is also thought to be unique since the Irish surnames of the Irish diaspora, some of whom are priests and bishops in the United States, Canada and Australia, have been listed in abuse cases in those countries. This has raised questions about the oppressive power of the Catholic Church in Ireland and its influence on the Irish political process. Questions have been raised about the Irish ‘culture of deference’ and how this related to the abuse situation. Some wonder if the Church and state worked separately and together in covering up the sexual abuse of Irish children. Some also wonder if ‘Irish’ Catholicism has peculiar features, which when exported throughout the world, contributed to the abuse of children by Catholic clergy. As a mono-cultural society, rendering Ireland ‘the most Catholic country in the world’ , the Catholic Church, once considered the ultimate arbiter of morality has found itself on the margins of influence in Irish public life
      1466
  • Publication
    Hindsight, Foresight and Historical Judgement: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church
    (Routledge, 2015-12-01)
    This chapter presents the results of a study that explored the ways in which clerics who engaged in child sexual abuse made sense of their behaviour and the response of the Church hierarchy to allegations of abuse against clergy. It is argued that a systemic perspective offers the best explanation for both the abuse and the institutional response to the problem. In particular, the findings implicate institutional factors, such as a culture of secrecy and ignorance surrounding sex and relationships, clericalism, the interplay of power and powerlessness and an overly intellectualized understanding of morality into the causative explanatory frame. 
      409
  • Publication
    Preface: A Priesthood Imprisoned
    (Coventry Press, 2017-11-27)
    This article reflects on my writing of Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organizational Culture in 2012 from the perspective of a researcher therapist and Fr John Ryan's writing of this book from his experience as a Catholic priest and how we arrived at the same explanation for the problem of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as a systemic problem requiring systemic solutions.
      127