Masculinity, relationships and Context: Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church

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.