Abstract
When did it all start, this dirty little secret of clerical sexual abuse in the American Catholic Church? And why didn’t anybody in the Church leadership do anything to stop it?
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Notes
Pope Leo XIII, “Longinque Oceani, Section 8,” 6 January 1895, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiiI_enc_06011895_longinqua_en.html.
Pope Leo XIII, “Immortale Dei, Section 33,” 1 November 1885, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_01111885_immortale-dei_en.html.
Pope Leo XIII, “Sapientiae Christianae, Sections 22 and 24,” 10 January 1890, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_10011890_sapientiae-christianae_en.html.
See Jo Renee Formicola, “Catholic Moral Demands in American Politics: A New Paradigm,” Journal of Church and State 51, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 4–23. See, for example, the religious challenges and responses by Al Smith, John F. Kennedy, John Kerry, and Rudolph Giuliani in their quests for the presidency.
See his main articles on the subject: “Freedom of Religion I: The Ethical Problem,” Theological Studies, 6 (June 1945): 229–286; “Contemporary Orientations of Catholic Thought on Church and State,” Theological Studies 10 (June 1949): 177–234; “Governmental Repression of Heresy,” Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America (Chicago: Catholic Theological Society of America, 1948) pp. 26–98; “The Problem of State Religion,” Theological Studies 12 (June 1951) pp, 155–178; and “Leo XIII on Church and State: The General Structure of the Controversy,” Theological Studies XIV (March 1953): 1–30; “Leo XIII: Separation of Church and State,” Theological Studies 14 (March 1953): 145–214. Murray was subsequently censured for these ideas and not allowed to write on the subject of church-state relations. For a more complete explanation, see Jo Renee Formicola, “American Catholic Political Theology,” Journal of Church and State 29, no. 3 (Autumn 1987): 457–474.
The General Council (known as Vatican II) lasted from 1962–1965. Its purpose was to bring about Church renewal. For a compendium of documents that were promulgated at the meeting, see Walter M. Abbott, gen. ed., The Documents of Vatican II (New York: Herder and Herder, 1966).
See, for example, earlier works that continued to be influential regarding American Catholic thought on Church State relations by Father John A. Ryan, Moorehouse F. X. Millar, SJ. and Father Francis J. Boland. See especially, John A. Ryan and F. X. Millar, The State and the Church (New York: Macmillan, 1922) and
John A. Ryan and Francis A. Boland, Catholic Principles of Politics (New York: Macmillan, 1940).
Jason Berry, Lead Us Not into Temptation (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/1986_01_30_Berry_AnatomyOf.htm.
David Kohn, “The Church on Trial, Part 1: Rage in Louisana,” CBS News Report, 11 June 2002, http://cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/11/6011/main511845.html.
Jason Berry, “Anatomy of a Cover Up: The Diocese of Lafayette and Its Moral Responsibility for the Pedophilia Scandal,” The Times of Acadiana, 30 January 1986, http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/1986_01_30_Berry_AnatomyOf.htm.
Rev. Dr. Thomas Kane, “House of Affirmation, International Theraputic Center for Clergy and Religious: Give Me Your Hand,” September 1973, p. 3, http://www.bishop-accountability.org/treatment/HoA/1973_09_Kane_House_of_Affirmation.pdf.
Rev. Dr. Thomas Kane, “The House of Affirmation,” in Brothers Newsletter 17, no. 2 (1976): 19, http://www.bishop-accountability.org/treatment/HoA/1976_Kane_House_of_Affirmation.pdf.
Eamonn O’Neil, “What the Catholic bishop Knew,” The Guardian, 2 April 2010, New York, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/02/catholic-bishop-william-levada.
This diplomatic shift reflected a changed attitude in church-state thinking in the United States, especially at the Vatican. Both Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II had similar concerns: the power of the atheistic Communist regime in Eastern Europe to stifle freedom, both political and religious. Some saw this as a possible reason for a diplomatic symbiosis between the United States and the Holy See. For a fuller and more historical explanation, see Jo Renee Formicola, “US Vatican-Relations: Toward a Post-Cold War Convergence?” Journal of Church and State 38 (Autumn 1996): 799–816.
See, for example, Carl Bernstein, “The Holy Alliance,” Time 139 (24 February 1992): 28–35;
Alex Alexiev, “The Kremlin and the Vatican,” Orbis 27 (Fall 1983): 554–565.
Carl M. Cannon, “Priests Who Molest,” San Jose Mercury News, 31 December 1987, p. 3. Accessed at bishop-accountability.org.
Laurie Goodstein, “Audit Finds Sex Abuse Was Topic Decades Ago,” The New York Times, 19 June 2013, p. A14.
The National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, A Report of the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic bishops, 2004), p. 46, http://www.bishop-accountability.org.
Eric Rich and Elizabeth Hamilton, “Doctors: Church Used Us,” Hartford Courant, 24 March 2002, http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news9/2002-03-24.
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© 2014 Jo Renee Formicola
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Formicola, J.R. (2014). Early Warnings and Denials: Father Gauthe. In: Clerical Sexual Abuse. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381644_2
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