1 1 Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Meets the Civil Law by Thomas P ...

Another researcher, Dr. Susan Balboni, also found that individual bishops who tried to
seek help for their psychological problems were ignored by the American episcopate as a
whole. 128 In response to these attempts, the Church defended the status quo of its own political
structure, as it grew increasingly critical in areas of secular or civil public policy, social action,
and economic structures. 129
As a group, Catholic clergy continued to approach sexual issues, particularly sexual
dysfunction, from the same moralistic mind set as their counterparts in the middle ages. This
deep-seated resistance to a non-traditional view of human sexuality was especially true of the
Church hierarchy. The most common opinion of the clergy and Church hierarchy was that the
problem and solution were both rooted in the will of man; the temptation to sin is one which he
will either resist or to which he will succumb. 130 In either case, there are no acceptable
mitigating factors provided by the behavioral sciences. Consequently, the average Catholic cleric
remained significantly immature and emotionally underdeveloped. The institutional Church
frowned upon authentic human maturity and the approaches used by the scientific community. It
posed a threat to the complex and intricate science-based approach that had been constructed
over the centuries as a way to understand the human person.
128 See Balboni, supra note 101, at 87-88.
129 This is the authors’ opinion based on their private study of the topics of public statements issued by the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops-U.S. Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops between 1980-2002. See generally
Pastoral Letters of The United States Catholic Bishops, National Conference of Catholic Bishops-United States
Catholic Conference, Vol. 1, 1792-1940 (1984), Vol. 2 1941-1961 (1984), Vol. 3 1962-1974, Vol. IV 1975-1983
(1984), Vol. V 1983-1988 (1988) and Vol. VI, 1989-1997 (1998).
130 See Charles Callan & John McHugh, Moral Theology 462 (1929). Moral theology textbooks and religious
education texts of the pre-Vatican council era all proposed a nearly identical doctrine. Id. at 462. Callan and
McHugh’s book states: “Sex pleasure has been ordained by God as an inducement to perform an act which is both
disgusting in itself and burdensome in its consequences.” Id. See also Gerald Kelly, Modern Youth and Chastity
84 (1941).
24
24