Addressing Church Scandal: Sexual Abuse and Pedophilia

To learn about my take as a Catholic regarding the scandal of pedophilia and other sexual abuse actions by clergy in The Church, read this! (It’s still the one true faith!)

Jul 14, 2022

The Catholic Church has been around for 2,000 years, and is tied directly to Jesus Christ and His Apostles, who founded this Church, and meant it to be the authority for all of the followers Of Jesus, and bring others throughout the world into communion with the Church, and therefore: with God as well. Yet, despite being the Church founded by Jesus Christ, it has had its shortcomings in regards to the behavior of clergy and scandals in its history. Perhaps one of the top ones that come to mind and gnaw at the heart of the Church and its legacy in the world is the scandal regarding priest pedophilia and sexual abuse. Surely, those guilty of this are betraying not only the mission of the Church and its call to humility and reverence and holiness, but also to God, and they will pay their price come judgement day, and should also face justice in this world for their evil actions. It is hard for me as someone whose Catholic and has not experienced what apparently so many did experience and fall victim to, to relate to or to make an argument theologically about the validity of the authority Church, when some of its most trusted members broke the call to behave in a way Christ called in this body and it’s members to do. These victims are often understandably burdened and hurt by emotional trauma, grief, and great evil and wickedness, and will require us to demonstrate humility and understanding, before we get into the deeper arguments. This has also been used as a weapon against our faith by non-believers and those entirely uninterested in Christianity, much less Catholicism. In this, I will make the case on why the Church is still entirely valid and the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ for all time, despite its shortcomings, and everyone must seek to be in communion with it and Our Lord for eternal salvation. That being said, we will first cover the facts of the sexual abuse scandal, and not simply dismiss it as secondary and irrelevant, because that is not what Jesus would want. He would want reform and justice, not dismissal and ignorance, nor revolution.

Here are the facts: an investigation into sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church has found that an estimated 216,000 children were victims of abuse by clergy since 1950, Jean-March Sauvé, head of the commission that compiled the report, said. Sauvé said the commission itself had identified around 2,700 victims, but that a wide-ranging study by research and polling groups had estimated that there had been around 216,000 victims. The number could go up further to 330,000 when including abuse by lay members. Between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophile clergymen have worked in the French Catholic Church since the 1950s, the president of an independent commission on sexual abuse told CNN. The report of an over 2,500-page document said that around 3,000 child abusers, two-thirds of whom were priests. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an annual audit, documented more than 4,200 new allegations of sexual abuse of minors. More than 6,000 Catholic clergy members have been credibly accused of sexual abuse in the United States. Many of these accusations of abuse date back decades. A report titled The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 noted approximately 11,000 incidents of child sexual abuse allegedly took place in the Catholic Church between 1950 and 2002. Despite these numbers of priest abuses making up only 4% of all Catholic priests serving the Church during this time period, any number above 0 is below the standard Christ has called them to follow. Only about 2% of all priests accused of abuse between 1950 and 2002 received prison sentences. Between 1950 and 2002, 81% of victims abused by Catholic clergy members were male. Between 1950 and 2002, 22% of victims were 10 or under at the time the priest abuse took place. More statistics are out there, but these numbers don’t give justice to the evils experienced by victims of priest pedophilia and other clergy members of the Church. There was also irresponsibility of leaders of the Church to cover up or fail to bring justice the victims of the sexual abuse, and a failure to hold them accountable. Those complicit in this also bear responsibility.

But people who try to use such atrocities to outright deny the Church are misguided, and will be disappointed with other secular and religious institutions that have similar problems. A Pennlive.com article noted: “Child sex abuse happens across Protestant and evangelical churches- and, at times, at a higher rate. An investigation by The Associated Press recently found three insurance companies in the United States that provide liability coverage for 165,000 Protestant churches typically receive 260 reports every year of children being sexually abused by Protestant clergy or other staff. A survey by the Journal of Pastoral Care in 1993 found that 14 percent of Southern Baptist ministers said they had engaged in ‘inappropriate sexual behavior.’” The article also notes how there are sexual abuse cases involving children and underage people also in the field of sports, Boy Scouts, and beyond.

Another article by city-journal.org noted: “The most comprehensive report about sexual abuse in public schools, published by the Department of Education in 2004, estimates—on the basis of a 2000 survey, conducted by the American Association of University Women, of 2,065 students in grades eight through 11—that nearly 10 percent of K-12 students have been victims of sexual misconduct by a public school employee. Assuming that figure is accurate, this would translate into an approximately 4.5 million children nationwide suffering sexual misconduct by public school employees, with an estimated 3 million suffering physical sexual abuse—a number, according to the author of the study, Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft, more than 100 times greater than the physical abuse committed by Catholic priests, who, at the time the report was published, were undergoing a reckoning for the crimes within their ranks.”

Obviously, it is a grave catastrophe when any person abuses a child, let alone in a sexual manner, and we should build a country and a society in which that is as rare as possible. Such cases were not as widespread prior to the sexual revolution and progressive cultural changes that reject Christianity as the moral bedrock of society for our families and civilization, nor was mass violence, serial killings, and such level of mistrust amongst fellow citizens. There is an inescapable connection between homosexuality, and sexual abuse. A person engaging in the sin of sodomy and other such sexual immorality cases will result in their damnation, and we must guide those that have same sex attraction to Christ. There are homosexuals out there that are kind and good people at heart, and not all homosexuals are pedophiles, but it is undeniable that a great percentage of pedophilies are homosexual. An article by afl.net noted: “This fact is particularly disturbing. Homosexuals comprise just 2% of the population, yet are responsible for 33% of all child sexual abuse. They offend against children at 16 times the rate of the normal population. The Archives of Sexual Behavior, in a study of 229 convicted child molesters, found that ‘86% of offenders against males described themselves as homosexual or bisexual. Thus it comes as no surprise to discover that research into the priesthood scandal in the Catholic Church reveals that 81% of the victims of clergy abuse are young boys.” The more tolerant the Church has been to those with same sex attraction in clergy and the seminary, the greater abuse of children.

This is, of course, why the Church has the requirement of clerical celibacy; as a disciplinary measure. People who voluntarily enter the priesthood and choose this vocation and lifestyle, after a great length of time in seminary to prepare and challenge themselves for a full commitment to this going forward in their future- priests are not allowed to be married, and for deacons that are not married at the time they are ordained- they cannot marry after and are expected to live a life of celibacy. Martin Luther, architect of the Protestant Reformation, denounced this concept in his time, and Protestants and skeptics (including non-Christians who see this as strict silliness and even tyrannical) reject this sort of practice today. Luther argued that it kept clergy and laypeople apart, and violated the “freedom of the gospel.” To understand why Catholics have these clerical celibacy traditions, we must turn to tradition itself and Scripture. Going back some time, in response to clerical abuses and corruption, including the transmission at the death of a clergyman of church property to his wife and children. The Council of Pavia in 1018 dealt with this. Furthermore, Scripture actually affirms this view; Jesus Himself was not married or engaged in such relationships with women. As Matthew 19:12 says, “Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” So The Bible itself makes sense of this, tradition backs it in church history, and this tradition itself is important, and while we all should pray that God places someone special in our lives to have a family with, we must remember: serving Christ and following Him might require sacrifices, His plan is greater than ours, and dedication to His will instead of our own is what we are commanded to do. For some, celibacy might make sense, for others: necessary. Catholiceducation.org noted: “In the Western Catholic Church, celibacy became universally practiced in the 4th century, beginning with St. Augustine's adoption of the monastic discipline for all of his priests. In addition to the many practical reasons for this discipline — it was supposed to discourage nepotism — the celibate lifestyle allowed priests to be more independent and available. This ideal also called diocesan priests to live out the same witness as their brothers in monastic life. The Church hasn't changed her directives for celibacy, because over the centuries she has realized the practical and spiritual value of the practice (Pope Paul VI, On the Celibacy of the Priesthood;, Encyclical letter, 1967).”

But of course, the means of the Church to deliver itself from impurity and sexual scandal has had its shortcomings, and that is because, while Jesus gave the authority to the Church for all time until His Second Coming to teach on faith and morals correctly, by saying to Peter, the rock of the Church in Matthew‬ ‭16:17-19‬: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” promising to pray for Peter so that his faith will never fail and he, along with those in his office for all time to strengthen their brethren (Luke 22:32), and sending the Holy Spirit to the Apostles (John 14:26-31), He never promised perfection by the pope or the Church. In fact, Jesus calls Simon (Peter) like Satan, essentially, after promising to give Peter the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, when “Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he [Jesus] turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men” (Matthew 16:22-23).”

Joe Heschmeyer, author of “Pope Peter: Defending The Church’s Most Distinctive Doctrine In A Time Of Crisis”, wrote accurately and brilliantly on this in an article: “So what does all of this have to do with Peter and the papacy? There’s one final reason to read these two parts of Matthew 16 as a single account, and it relates directly to the question of who the ‘Rock’ is of Matthew 16. Jesus refers to St. Peter as a ‘hindrance’ to Himself. The Greek word there is skandalon (the root of our word ‘scandal’), and it literally means something that you trip over, like a ‘trap-stick’ or a ‘stumbling stone.’ So there’s a sort of play on words here: Peter at his best is a rock; at his worst, he’s a stone that we can trip over. It’s showing the two dimensions to the papacy: it’s an important locus for the Church, but can also be scandalous. In one of his earliest works on ecclesiology, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger (later, Pope Benedict XVI) would ask, ‘Has it not remained this way throughout all church history, that the pope, the successor of Peter, has been petra and skandalon, rock of God and stumbling stone all in one?’

In a fascinating turn, the same Peter who Jesus names Petros and who He calls both a petra and a scandalon in Matthew 16 will return the favor. In 1 Peter 2:8, Peter refers to Jesus as both a petra and scandalon: ‘A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall.’ But here, the connotation is different. He’s not rebuking Christ. Rather, Jesus is a scandal because of the scandal of the Cross. In doing so, he echoes Jesus’ words to himself, but with a new dimension: he’s grasped the connection between Jesus’ Messiahship and the scandal of the Cross. Finally, he’s letting us know that Jesus really is God. Why? Because 1 Peter 2:8 is also a quotation of Isaiah 8:13-14: ‘But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.’ So in Matthew 16, Jesus is clearly referring to Peter as both a rock and a scandal, but in saying this, we’re not denying that Jesus is Himself both a Rock and a Scandal (albeit in a very different way).” Peter, the first head of the Church, like the pope at the head of the Church throughout all of time, including Francis today, had to be criticized by other leaders (such as St. Paul in Galatians 2:11-14), got caught up in poor behavior (even denying Christ three times in Luke 22:54-62), and committed sinful actions. But, the pope can never teach incorrectly on faith and morals when speaking ex-cathedral with the intent of binding it to the entire Church, and even sins so awful and wicked as child sexual abuse, cannot and will not rebuke the authority of the Church and its ability to teach on faith and morals correctly and infallibly, despite it bringing skepticism on itself and making it look hypocritical, and even hellish.

St. Robert Bellarmine, On the Roman Pontiff noted: “Now our adversaries respond that the Church ought to hear him [the Roman Pontiff] so long as he teaches correctly, for God must be heard more than men. On the other hand, who will judge whether the Pope has taught rightly or not? For it is not for the sheep to judge whether the shepherd wanders off, not even and especially in those matters which are truly doubtful. Nor do Christian sheep have any greater judge or teacher to whom they might have recourse. As we showed above, from the whole Church one can appeal to the Pope; yet from him no one is able to appeal; therefore necessarily the whole Church will err, if the Pontiff would err.”

Archbishop Michael Sheehan said: “Christ the Son of God founded a Church to teach all mankind. He promised to be with her all days even to the end of the world. Because of this perpetual help, His Church must claim to teach people as He taught them: she must claim to be infallible in her teaching. The Catholic Church is the only religious body in the world that makes that claim. She alone therefore is the Church founded by Christ. The great antiquity of the Catholic Church, her marvellous growth, her unconquerable endurance, her wondrous holiness, her inexhaustible fruitfulness in all charitable works, her power of holding her vast following together- despite every assault upon her unity- so that, in spite of all manner of differences in race and culture and ambitions, they remain ever one in faith, in worship, in obedience- it is the combination of all these characteristics that sets the Church quite apart from merely human institutions and marks her plainly as the work of God."

St. Irenaeus, who lived from 130 AD to 202 AD, noted: “As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, vet the import of the tradition is one and the same... the Catholic Church possesses one and the same faith throughout the whole world, as we have already said." - Against Heresies 1:10

One must not forget the good the Church does, though. It would be right and just to acknowledge the enormous amount of good that the Catholic Church has done for society in ways aside from their contributions to the faith of Christianity itself, and does to this day. A 2010 Report found the Church runs 5,500 hospitals, 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, with 65% of them located in underdeveloped and developing countries, and they are estimated to operate around 140,000 schools globally- over 50 million students worldwide, and is the largest institution for charity in the world. The Catholic Church feeds, houses, clothes, takes care of more sick people, and educates more people than any other institution in history. To this day, they are essential in food bank programs, homeless shelter programs, and other similar aids to those worse off in society. The Catholic Church has been essential in medical, mathematic, and scientific innovations, discoveries, and projects. The Catholic Church helped preserve some of the most beautiful and well-known art pieces and architecture pieces throughout history that pertain to history and our very faith. The Catholic Church has been vital to the organization of legal structures as a model, the makeup of various languages in the world, and musical traditions and genres. Perhaps above all else: how about being the building block for Western Civilization, and being the guiding Church for 2000 years of Christianity in the world, and canonizer of the Bible? The imperfect, holy, catholic, apostolic church is a force for good.

‘Twas well written by St. Frances de Sales who wrote: “And again we must not think that in everything and everywhere his judgment is infallible, but then only when he gives judgment on a matter of faith in questions necessary to the whole Church; for in particular cases which depend on human fact he can err, there is no doubt, though it is not for us to control him in these cases save with all reverence, submission, and discretion. Theologians have said, in a word, that he can err in questions of fact, not in questions of right; that he can err extra cathedram, outside the chair of Peter, that is, as a private individual, by writings and bad example. But he cannot err when he is in cathedra , that is, when he intends to make an instruction and decree for the guidance of the whole Church, when he means to confirm his brethren as supreme pastor, and to conduct them into the pastures of the faith. For then it is not so much man who determines, resolves, and defines as it is the Blessed Holy Spirit by man, which Spirit, according to the promise made by Our Lord to the Apostles, teaches all truth to the Church, and, as the Greek says and the Church seems to understand in a collect of Pentecost, conducts and directs his Church into all truth: But when that Spirit of truth shall come, he will teach you all truth or, will lead you into all truth (John xvi. 13). And how does the Holy Spirit lead the Church except by the ministry and office of preachers and pastors? But if the pastors have pastors they must also follow them, as all must follow him who is the supreme pastor, by whose ministry Our God wills to lead not only the lambs and little sheep, but the sheep and mothers of lambs; that is, not the people only but also the other pastors: he succeeds St. Peter, who received this charge: Feed my sheep. Thus it is that God leads his Church into the pastures of his Holy Word, and in the exposition of this he who seeks the truth under other leading loses it. The Holy Spirit is the leader of the Church, he leads it by its pastor, he therefore who follows not the pastor follows not the Holy Spirit.”

Archbishop Michael Sheehan wrote: “We must love the Church as designed by Christ. The defects which we may perceive in the Church are not truly hers, but belong to her sinful members, and owe nothing to her constitution as willed by Christ. Her divine Founder even permits tendency towards evil to afflict the higher members of His mystical Body, for the testing of the virtue of both flock and Pastors, and for the greater merit of Christian faith in all. No one aware of his own frailty and the blight of Original Sin should be so scandalised by the sins of others as to weaken in faith or lessen in his attachment to Christ and the Church, but ought prove his love ever more by praying for those who have fallen and making loving reparation to the Heart of Jesus wounded by sin. The Church ever remains the Immaculate Bride of Christ, perfectly pure in her teaching, and unfailingly fruitful in her sacraments and spiritual doctrine” (Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, 1921).

Again, despite human failings from a human-led institution- the Church is not mortal. The Church has divine roots in its founding, and it is not merely led by men as it is guided by the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified. Popes will come and go, and the Church may have this scandal or that, but it can never be corrupted as a religious theological institution, because it has divine foundation and guidance, and for 2,000, and for all time: it has sustained the winds and waters of the world, and will never be overcame by the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18). To those of the Christian faith who reject Rome’s authority and the apostolic succession, and seek a relationship with Our Lord outside of Him, it was well said in response by this, per St Jerome (who died in 420 AD): “As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is, with the Chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the Church is built… This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails… And as for heretics, I have never spared them; on the contrary, I have seen to it in every possible way that the Church’s enemies are also my enemies.” (Manual of Patrology and History of Theology). I hope all come home to Come to Christ, and to Rome, where His one, holy, Catholic, apostolic Church resides, imperfections put aside.