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

is only partially rooted in the sex abuse itself. The more powerful inhibitor is the reaction
to the identity and the spiritual power of the abuser. Carnes refers to this as “betrayal by
the spirit” and rightly identifies the victim’s “no-win” situation:
Betrayal by the spirit means that the person who betrays the
victims also plays a critical role in the resources the victim
has for defining meaning. The victim’s spiritual path is
blocked. The fundamental question all victims have to
answer to themselves is: ‘Why do bad things happen to
good people?’ It is a far more troubling question when the
cause of the problem is supposed to be the resource for the
answer. 398
The exploitive betrayal bond is strengthened by several factors related to
clericalism and religious duress. The first of these is the repetition of the abuse. The
victim keeps returning for irrational reasons: the conflicted relationship with the priest,
and the addictive repetition. 399 Second, the victim and victimizer believe in their own
uniqueness. Clergy abuse victims often believe they are the only one. Clergy abusers
often underscore this by convincing the victims of their specialness in being singled out
for attention. 400 A third factor is the fear inspired by the abuser. 401 This fear is
interwoven with the other aspects of this complex web, especially repetition and self-
blame. The abuser is a trusted person. This trust does not spring up overnight; it is
nurtured over years of participation in the many aspects of Church life. When abuse
happens the trust is jolted, but it does not vaporize. Rather, the bond created by the trust
is perverted in that it feeds the trauma.
A final element, especially relevant in the clergy abuse context, is the extreme
398
Carnes, supra note 373, at 68-69.
399
Id. at 31.
400
Id. at 82-83.
401
Id. at 87-90.
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