Victor R. Claveau, MJ
“The loss of one soul carries with it a penalty which no language can represent. For if the salvation of that soul was of such value, that the Son of God became man, and suffered so much, think how sore a punishment must the losing of it bring!’
— St John Chrysostom. Homily III: Acts I. 12.
It is heart breaking for faithful Catholics to see what has happened in the Church because of the priests who violated their vows. The vast majority of Catholic priests are true to their vocation. They pour themselves out on a day-to-day basis to serve God and God’s people. The Church will survive and even be strengthened by this adversity. This abscess will get incised, cleaned, and will eventually heal.
One of the greatest tragedies is the people who have left the Church because of this scandal. Their roots were shallow. That is why it is so vital that Catholics be grounded in their faith. If people truly understood the beauty of Church teaching, they would never leave, regardless of this unspeakable betrayal to Christ. These so-called priests violated the purity of their sworn vocation. We must pray for the Church and for these men who have jeopardized their immortal souls.
Our Lord said, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes!”[1]
We must also pray for those who have left the Church as they have unwittingly discarded the greatest of treasures.”
It seems that the sexual abuse of minors is endemic in our society.In 2018, Thomas G. Plante Ph.D., ABPP, [2] published an article in “Psychology Today” stating, “All child abuse is horrific. Abuse perpetrated by clerics, both within and outside of the Catholic Church, is especially awful since we hold these individuals to a much higher standard of behavior and trust.” … “Keeping children safe from abuse should be everyone’s top priority. Tragically, data suggests that whenever men have access to and power over children and teens, clerics or not, a certain small percentage of them will violate that trust and sexually abuse these minors under their supervision. This is true for Catholic and non-Catholic clerics as well as lay teachers, coaches, tutors, choir directors, scout leaders, and so forth.” … “No empirical data exists that suggests that Catholic clerics sexually abuse minors at a level higher than clerics from other religious traditions or from other groups of men who have ready access and power over children (e.g., school teachers, coaches).” … “The best way to deal with this reality is to develop evidence-based best practices that create environments where children are safe and where you carefully screen for those who wish to work with young people. Doing this has been very successful with many organizations during the past decade or so, including with the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls Club of America, US Olympic Committee, public and private schools, and so forth (and all of these organizations have consulted with each other to ensure that best practices are known and followed.”[3]
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On September 20th, 2023, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights published an article entitled “Clergy Sexual Abuse Disappearing.”
“The clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has long been over and now it is practically non-existent. To be sure, there continues to be a tiny fraction of the clergy who are offenders, but it has long since been of the magnitude of a scandal. But don’t look to the media to tell you this. … The 2022 Annual Report on the Implementation of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” considers allegations made between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. It found that there were 16 allegations made by minors during that time, seven of which were substantiated. That means that of the 52,387 members of the clergy (34,344 priests and 18,043 deacons), .013 percent of them had a substantiated allegation made against him.
“Importantly, in the first half of 2022, the number of allegations— (not allegations that have been substantiated)—was zero.
“There is no organization in the nation, where adults regularly interact with minors, which has a better record than this. This includes religious as well as secular institutions.
“In the period under review, most of the 16 allegations were made by females. This indicates that the crackdown on homosexuals in the priesthood has been successful. The heyday of the scandal was between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s; this was also the period when the Church dropped its guard and allowed homosexuals to thrive in some seminaries and in the priesthood.
“Credit must be given to Pope Benedict XVI who instituted a policy that discouraged men with ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ from seeking entry into the priesthood. Fortunately, Pope Francis has continued this commonsensical policy. Together with the reforms established by the bishops in the United States, this explains why cases of molestation have crashed.”
[1] Mt 18:7.
[2] At the time of this writing Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPPwas professor of psychology, and religious studies, at Santa Clara University and adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.
[3] Plante, T. G., & McChesney, K. (Eds.). (2011). Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO.