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

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scripture and events in Church history. 322 There is ample evidence of the abuse of clerical power throughout Western history. This abuse gave rise to anti-clerical sentiment in several countries where the Catholic Church had accumulated vast economic, political, and social power. Although clericalism and anti-clericalism existed from the earliest years of the Church, the scholarly study of the theological and social dimensions of these twin phenomena tends to focus on the late medieval and reformation periods of Europe. 323 Studies have also been done on anti-clericalism in the Spanish colonies of the New World and in Nineteenth and early Twentieth century Mexico. 324 Some of the most vocal critics of medieval and pre-Reformation clerical abuses were themselves members of the clerical estate, including Martin Luther, a one-time Augustinian Monk whose reaction to rampant clerical abuse led to his involvement with the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther was not an isolated voice of criticism, although he was perhaps the most prominent critic of his time. A review of some of Luther’s writings, especially his sermons, illustrates significant parallels with today’s Church. 325 The Second Vatican Council attempted to revivify the theological concept of the Church as the “People of God.” 326 Such revolutionary thinking understandably posed a serious threat to many in the clerical world who argued that the clerical state was 322 Flannery, supra note 317, at 564-65. 323 See Anticlericalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Peter Dykema & Heiko Oberman eds., 1993) [hereinafter Dykema & Olberman]. 324 See Donald J. Mabry, Mexican Anticlerics, Bishops, Cristeros and the Devout During the 1920’s: A Scholarly Debate, 20 J. of Church & St. 81-82 (1978). 325 Robert Bast, Anticlericalism, The Law and Social Ethics in Luther’s Sermons on Matthew 22:34-41, in Dykema & Oberman, supra note 323, at 367-78. 326 See Marie-Joseph le Guillou, History of Ecclesiology, in Encyclopedia of Theology: The Concise Sacramentum Mundi 206-09 (Karl Rahner, ed., 1975). 58
instituted by God Himself and was essential for the existence of His Church. At stake were the power and other “worldly” benefits that accrued to clerics, especially those in positions of authority. The Vatican Council clearly rejected clericalism perhaps without fully understanding how such a rejection would threaten the clerical establishment for decades to follow. It referred to the “secular” as the proper realm of the lay person, implying that “secular” was good, and not a world to be feared as the source of evil and damnation. 327 The Council took decisive steps against the passive role of the laity in ecclesiastical life by opening up positions in the administration and judicial systems of the institutional Church. 328 It also made the revolutionary step of welcoming the laity into the sacred realm of liturgical worship. Lay people could not only read at Mass, but they could do what had formerly been unthinkable—they could touch the consecrated host and distribute communion. 329 Thirty-five years after the Vatican council ended, reformers were still arguing about the detrimental presence of clericalism in the Church. 330 In spite of the far- reaching changes brought about by the Council, clericalism has remained alive. In 1983, the United States Conference of Major Superiors of Men conducted a study of clericalism. 331 The study affirmed the existence of clericalism among those in holy orders, and also found that persons other than clerics exhibit traits of clericalism. 332 Yet the chief manifestations are found in the clergy themselves. These include an 327 See Flannery, supra note 317. 328 See 1917 Code c.228. 329 See 1917 Code c.230. 330 See Shaw, supra note 277, at 9. 331 See id. 332 Id. at 2. 59
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clerics have received sentences thr
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victims from among their congregant
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Page 25 and 26: Until very recently, sexual dysfunc
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