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

ecause they could not break from it even after repeated abusive acts. It explains why victims
were unable to disclose the abuse to parents, siblings, friends, Church authorities, or law
enforcement authorities at the time it happened, and often for years or even decades thereafter.
Clericalism and religious duress are grounded in the reality of an inordinate power held by
clerics over lay people, and within the clerical subculture, by higher clerics over those of lower
rank. 276
Lay Catholics and congregants of other denominations have almost universally held their
clergy in the highest esteem, without them having earned it. They are taught to extend to them
the greatest respect and deference. 277 The cleric was traditionally presumed to be a man of
integrity and impeccable morals. 278 Perhaps because of this lofty position, clerics have been able
to carry out the seduction and grooming process of victims without arousing suspicion.
Catholicism is both a complex socio-cultural reality and a worldwide political entity. It
touches the spiritual, moral, emotional, psychic, and economic aspects of the lives of its
members. For many people, the Church is identified with the clergy who hold all-important
positions of power in it.
Clericalism is a radical misunderstanding of the place of clerics in the Church. It is an
ism that describes the erroneous belief that clerics form a special elite within the Church, and
because of their powers as sacramental ministers they are superior to the laity, are deserving of
special and preferential treatment, and have a closer relationship to God. 279 The mistaken belief
that the members of the clergy are a spiritual elite, superior to the average lay person, and in
276
See Doyle, supra note 20, at 209-15.
277
See Russell Shaw, An Overview of Clericalism, in To Hunt, To Shoot, To Entertain 1-37 (1993).
278
Id. at 28-29.
279
Conference of Major Superiors of Men, In Solidarity and Service: Reflections on the Problem of Clericalism in
the Church, Washington D.C., 1983, at 2.
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