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

Until very recently, sexual dysfunction of any kind was evaluated and judged from a
generalized negative concept of human sexuality. 131 Illicit sexual acts were presumed immoral,
and were historically linked directly to the weakness of the human will. 132 The perpetrator is
considered a sinner and his actions evil, and the solution is repentance and conversion. 133 This
outlook has begun to change within the past ten years, as a result of consistent pressure on
Church leadership to seek a more enlightened understanding of why sexual abusers act as they
do. In spite of this pressure, there is significant resistance to evaluating such problematic sexual
issues in a non-traditional, scientific context.
Priests were generally not offered professional treatment for sexual problems until the
late 1960s. 134 Most were sent to treatment centers affiliated with the Church who dealt
exclusively with clerics, centers that have also met with difficulty in fulfilling their treatment
objectives. 135 As the number of sexually offending clerics grew rapidly, these institutions
became key players in the drama that would begin to play out in the mid-1980s. The Paraclete
Fathers' program is one program that was criticized for allegedly allowing priests who received
treatment for sexual disorders, to work in parishes on weekends. 136 Although their facilities
remain open they no longer treat clergy with sexual disorders. 137 Another center was The House
131
See Kennedy, supra note 91, at 8-10.
132
Id. at 8-10.
133
See Balboni, supra note 101, at 164.
134
See Ellen Barry, Priest Treatment Unfolds in Costly, Secretive World, Boston Globe, April 3, 2002 at A1. “By
the mid-1960s . . . the Paraclete retreat began welcoming an increasing number of pedophiles and, more commonly,
ephebophiles, or adults who are sexually aroused by pubescents, usually males, Lechner said.”
135
The authors are aware of the existence of the following: St. Luke's Institute, Silver Spring, MD; St. John
Vianney Center, Downingtown, PA; Southdown, Toronto, Ontario; the Houses of Affirmation and the facilities
directed by the Paraclete Fathers in New Mexico and Missouri. A noteworthy exception is the Institute for the
Living, a secular facility in Hartford CT.
136
See Barry, supra note 134.
137
See Ellen Barry, Catholic Church has spent millions on Secret Treatment, Boston Globe, Apr. 7, 2002, at A1.
“In 1994 the Paraclete fathers shut down the sexual disorders treatment center in New Mexico, after they were
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