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On Feb. 13, the University held a panel discussion addressing the ongoing issues of sexual abuse facing the Catholic community. The forum was titled “Institutional and Doctrinal Roots of Clerical Sexual Abuse,” and was sponsored by the Honors Program, the department of theology and religious studies, the department of economics, the Center for Peace and Justice and the department of history. The discussion featured a multi-disciplinary approach to this controversial topic, as professors from a variety of departments addressed the issue.

The event was moderated by Professor William Wepehowski from the Center for Peace and Justice. He commented that this forum would raise “issues that will be distinctive, provocative and challenging.”

Professor R. Emmet McLaughlin from the history department addressed the crowd first. He concentrated on the historical roots of this issue in a section titled “Clerical Sexual Abuse: Not a New Problem.” He remarked that there are three types of abuse that have predominated throughout the centuries. These include the abuse of power, money and sex. “Clerical sexual abuse has been all too common for much of the Church’s history…[because] clergy are human…and clerical greed for money and power are proverbial,” he said.

After discussing these characteristic types of abuse, he focused specifically on the nature of sexual exploitation. He remarked that this type of abuse has always been a particular problem because of celibacy regulations placed upon clergy members. McLaughlin outlined how these regulations have affected the Catholic Church throughout the centuries and offered explanations as to why the clergy appears so susceptible to these charges. “Clerical abuse of all sorts is endemic and perennial…the common factor is power,” he explained. Not only are higher standards applied to the behavior of the clergy, but they maintain access to vulnerable populations. In addition, the clergy are able to more effectively hide their offenses, because “in order to protect the Church, they are willing to sacrifice others,” he said.

Professor Gustavo Benavides from the department of theology and religious studies spoke next, in a section titled “Sex, Continence, Power.” He discussed the assumption that these issues are not new problems and focused on the connection between power and sex. Specifically, “an abstention from sexual activity can generate power,” he said. Those who suppress these natural and sexual urges will gain something in return.

He then highlighted issues concerning changes in liturgical practices. These include a disappearance of sacrificial components of mass as well as the softening of the religious practices of the Roman Catholic Church. “Trying to reconstruct the changes…[will affect] the way people relate to embodiments of ritual power,” he said.

Finally, Professor Charles Zech of the economics department focused his lecture on the financial ramifications pertaining to these issues, in a segment titled, “Church Financial Accountability and Support in the Wake of the Clerical Sexual Abuse Scandal.” He explained how he was recently selected to organize a gallop poll dealing with these issues. This initiative was designed to discover how the sex scandal would affect financial contributions to the Church.

He polled 656 regularly attending members of the Catholic Church and asked them such questions as, “Are the U.S. Catholic bishops doing a good job or bad job with the sexual abuse scandal,” and “How accountable are U.S. bishops?” He also focused his questions to understand how households have altered their contributions in regard to recent sexual abuse allegations. While the majority of givers declared their contributions would remain the same, others noted how cases resulting in potential settlements or admissions of guilt would affect their giving patterns.

At the conclusion of this forum discussion, all three speakers responded to a number of audience questions. These included issues surrounding the responsibility of the congregation and particularly those of the younger generation of Catholics.