Hindsight, Foresight and Historical Judgement: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church

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.