Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

11. The Secret Is Revealed

191 Chapter 11 The Secret Is Revealed External Factors Sexual Abuse Acknowledged as a Social Problem Prior to the 1980s, the sexual abuse of children and adolescents was a well-kept secret throughout society. It was the women’s movement of the 1970s that dragged incest and sexual abuse into the public eye, along with other forms of domestic violence and crimes against women and children . Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, methodologically sound empirical studies were published indicating that approximately one third of all women and one fourth of all men are sexually abused prior to the age of eighteen.1 These studies found that young people were most often abused by someone they knew and trusted—a family member or someone who had authority over them like a camp counselor, teacher, scout leader, or religious leader. Researchers and clinicians developed an increasingly comprehensive literature elaborating short-term and long-term consequences of sexual abuse and outlining various treatment approaches.2 Victims of childhood sexual abuse began to speak about their experiences publicly, knowing for the first time in their lives that they were not alone.3 Talkshow host Oprah Winfrey, a sexual abuse survivor herself, worked tirelessly and responsibly to publicize the after-effects of early sexual trauma and to support programs that protect children and help recovering adults. Television programs and movies like Something about Amelia, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Nuts, The Prince of Tides, Mystic River, Sleepers , and The Boys of St. Vincent’s, the latter based on the clergy abuse of orphans at Mt. Cashel in Newfoundland, portrayed the impact of early sexual trauma. By the mid-1990s, too much data about sexual abuse had been generated for all but the most skeptical, the most naive, or the most ill intended 192 Perversion of Power to deny that the sexual exploitation of minors has been a social problem of substantial magnitude. The social milieu was ripe to take seriously a sexual abuse scandal like the one unfolding within the Catholic Church. Therapists Replace Confessors Psychiatrists and psychoanalysts have seen patients since the late 1800s, but psychotherapy for a long time was limited to a relatively small segment of the population who could afford the time and money it required and who believed in its efficacy. It was not until after World War II that psychologists, clinical social workers, and other mental health professionals were able to obtain state licenses enabling them to make therapy available to more people. Concurrently, state and local community mental health centers and substance abuse treatment clinics sprung up offering low-cost mental health services to even more individuals. At the same time that psychotherapy resources were expanding, priests were in shorter supply and were aging as a group. In increasing numbers of parishes, priests simply were not available to give ongoing advice or counseling to parishioners; other clerics, years older than many of their flock, were not perceived to be acceptable helping professionals. As one acquaintance in her forties told me, “My mother would rather die than see a therapist; she brought all her problems to our priest—when she brought them anywhere at all. I would rather die than talk about my life with a priest but never miss an appointment with my shrink.” This move from priests to therapists was rapid, taking less than one generation and markedly dividing postwar Catholic parents from their children. A corollary of the shift was a weakening of the power of priests in the internal lives of enough parishioners such that, when the sexual abuse scandal broke in 2002, a critical mass of Catholics paid attention to it. Changing Views of Authority “Brick and Mortar” Catholics for the most part bowed to both secular and religious authorities, generally trusting leaders in both realms to conduct themselves with integrity. The World War II generation had given their youths to a war believed to be just and necessary. When they came home, many joined companies or unions that promised lifelong job security and a pension later in life. The government offered them GI loans for college and low interest rates on home mortgages. Within their faith, we have seen that Catholics of this era (and older) were prepared to “pray, pay, and The Secret Is Revealed 193 obey,” trusting that their bishops, cardinals, and pastors were decent and honest. Of course there were Catholics who were cynical about the clergy even...