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

assemblies (called synods or councils), and general councils of the Church. 169 Insights into the
Church response are obtained from theological writings of various Church leaders. The
“official” sources are those derived from Church authority, the canonical texts. 170
The negative attitude towards homosexual or sodomitic acts reaches back to the earliest
days of organized Christianity. 171 The first Christians were generally from a Jewish religious
and secular culture. 172 Although Christianity quickly embraced converts from other ethnic and
religious traditions, notably Hellenistic or Greek, it was, at the outset, primarily Judaic in
origin. 173 The doctrines of the Hellenistic and Judaic traditions equated homosexual acts with
murder, possibly in reaction to the Greek cultural acceptance of pederastic sexuality. 174 The
early Christians clearly adopted Judaic homophobia, 175 as evidenced by the various examples of
ecclesiastical sources from the Second century onward, which outwardly condemn sodomia.
As early as the year 177 A.D., Bishop Athenagoras characterized adulterers and pederasts as foes
of Christianity and subjected them to excommunication, then the harshest penalty the church
could inflict. 176 The Council of Elvira in 305 severely condemned pederasts. 177 Canons 16 and
17 of the Council of Ancyra in 314 inflicted lengthy penances and excommunication for male
homosexuality. 178
Another important source of insight into the Church’s early view of sexual abuse comes
169
Id. at 168-71.
170
See Coriden, supra note 34, at 29-30. Catholic Church law must be officially promulgated by an authoritative
lawgiver. This is the pope for the entire church and bishops for their individual dioceses. Laws proposed by groups
of bishops must received papal approval for official standing. Id.
171
Vern Bullough & James Brundage, Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church 55 (1982).
172
Johansson & Percy, supra note 165, at 159-60.
173
See Raymond Brown, Early Church, in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary 1340-42 (1992).
174
Id. at 160.
175
Johansson & Percy, supra note 165, at 160-65.
176 Id. at 162.
177 Id.
178 Id.
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