Molestation Inside The Church

Taking on a still-controversial topic, a diverse group of experts, including victims and clergy, offers reflections on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, examining what the church has done—and what it still needs to do—to protect children. Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002–2012 is a thoughtful, multidisciplinary commentary. Beginning when the scandal first broke in Boston in 2002, this first-of-its-kind work offers a wide range of opinion, both positive and negative, on what has been done in the ensuing ten years to stop and prevent such abuse. Through the contributions here, readers can delve into the world of the church hierarchy and into the minds of abusive priests and their victims. The book presents the views of leading academics and psychologists, but also allows the church to speak. First-person insights from victims are shared, as in a chapter written by a woman abused by a clergy member as an adolescent. She explains what happened, the resulting trauma, how she healed, and what she thinks needs to be done to prevent future abuse—a subject that still makes headlines and stirs debate.

"This book takes a holistic approach by providing insight into the behavior and nature of sex offenders within the church. The text covers various types of sex offenders as well as their criminal propensities and methods of acquiring victims. Warning signs associated with sex crimes within the church are explained as well as security measures and prevention strategies that church leaders and criminal justice professionals can utilize to minimize risk to congregants. Discussion questions and case study scenarios are provided to allow the reader to examine relevant issues and explore a range of potential solutions and interventions. This comprehensive book is intended for criminal justice academicians who teach courses on sex crimes and sex offenders, criminal justice agents (police and investigators), seminary professors and students, and clergy members. It can also assist security teams, church board members, leaders, and teachers in developing intervention and prevention strategies"--

Sacrilege explores the deep roots of the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal, revealing its full depth and breadth. In horrifying yet necessary detail, former federal investigator Leon Podles surveys the full extent of the damage, showing how victims were failed by bishops, laity, therapists, police, courts, press, and even popes. Examining the history behind today's headlines, Dr. Podles reveals how centuries-old theological errors encouraged blind submission to hierarchy, by making obedience to authority the highest virtue. He also shines a light on the new theological errors, popularized since Vatican II, that glorify every type of sexual expression--including pedophilia. Sacrilege will prove an essential resource for all those concerned with the history and future of Catholicism.

Molestation has been the forbidden subject for centuries, downplayed in homes, communities, and churches. Although it has existed and has destroyed and still destroying peopleaEUR(tm)s life, molestation has a stigma of aEURoekeep it a secret.aEUR This book is calling this demon out and putting it on notice about molestation. You have been called out and will become the subject in churchaEUR(tm)s sermons, communities, homes, government, and media. Molestation demon, you have been hiding and lurking in the dark for too long. Molestation talks, and issues come out in homes, churches, communities, and news media for a little while and creep back into its dark hiding spots. Molestation strikes day and night 365 days of the year but only is discussed when a high-profile case is exposed in the media. After a few weeks or months, media tends to move on to more important and more comfortable subjects that give great poll ratings. Molestation may come up in a pastoraEUR(tm)s sermon or in prayer but quickly is moved on to other subjects, which seem to not make people feel uncomfortable. Molestation is uncomfortable because it is a demon. Therefore, this book deals with the uncomfortable demon molestation. This book suggests for pastors and leaders to preach and teach on molestation so that the community is reached. Therefore, prevention, healing, and deliverance will take place. This book aims to reach molestation demons in the deep rural country backwoods, communities, and churches that are not in the news. Molestation lurks in those deep dark rural areas that are not covered by the media. This book covers all areas of the world. Molestation has a history of being a cycle for centuries but no more! And this is just the beginning of the spiritual warfare on molestation!

Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith. (First Place). With atheism on the rise and millions tossing off religion, why would anyone consider the Catholic Church? Brandon Vogt, a bestselling author and the content director for Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, shares his passionate search for truth, a journey that culminated in the realization that Catholicism was right about a lot of things, maybe even everything. His persuasive case for the faith reveals a vision of Catholicism that has answers our world desperately needs and reminds those already in the Church what they love about it. A 2016 study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 25 percent of adults (39 percent of young adults) describe themselves as unaffiliated with any religion. Millions of these so-called “nones” have fled organized religion and many more have rejected God altogether. Brandon Vogt was one of those nones. When he converted to Catholicism in college, he knew how confusing that decision was to many of his friends and family. But he also knew that the evidence he discovered pointed to one conclusion: Catholicism is true. To his delight, he discovered it was also exceedingly good and beautiful. Why I Am Catholic traces Vogt’s spiritual journey, making a refreshing, twenty-first century case for the faith and answering questions being asked by agnostics, nones, and atheists, the audience for his popular website, StrangeNotions.com, where Catholics and atheists dialogue. With references to Catholic thinkers such as G. K. Chesterton, Ven. Fulton Sheen, St. Teresa of Calcutta, and Bishop Robert Barron, Vogt draws together lines of evidence to help seekers discover why they should be Catholic as an alternative. Why I Am Catholic serves as a compelling reproposal of the Church for former Catholics, a persuasive argument for truth and beauty to those who have become jaded and disenchanted with religion, and at the same time offers practicing Catholics a much-needed dose of confidence and clarity to affirm their faith against an increasingly skeptical culture.

While seminaries, by many accounts, admit an increasing number of homosexuals, women are strictly barred from ministerial roles. The church's time-honored tradition of "avoiding scandal" also backfires. For by the shielding of fallen clerics, Berry shows, the suffering of the abused is often compounded.

Since 2002, the Roman Catholic Church has been in crisis over the sexual abuse of minors by priests and the cover-up of those crimes by bishops. Over 11,000 alleged victims have reported their experiences to the Church, and more than 4,700 priests since 1950 have been credibly accused of sexually victimizing minors. The Church has paid over one billion dollars to adults who claim to have been sexually abused by priests and there is no end in sight to these lawsuits. Celibacy, homosexuality in the priesthood, the infiltration into the priesthood of secular moral relativism, too much liberalism in the Church since Vatican II, damaging rollback of Vatican II reforms by conservative prelates--all have been suggested as causes for the crisis. This book, however, begins with the premise that, because the pattern of abuse and cover-up was so similar across the world, there is something fundamentally awry with Church traditions and power structures in relationship to sexuality and sexual abuse. Specifically, in chapters on suffering and sadomasochism, bodies and gender, desire and sexuality, celibacy and homosexuality, the author concludes that aspects of the Catholic theology of sexuality set the stage for the abuse of minors and its cover-up. Frawley-O'Dea also analyzes the American bishops' lack of pastoral care and tendency towards clerical narcissism--the belief that the needs of the hierarchy represent the needs of the wider Church--as central factors in the scandal. She balances this criticism with a discussion of the backgrounds of the bishops presiding over the crisis and the challenges they faced in their relationships with the Pope and Vatican officials. Drawing on twenty years of clinical experience, she imagines the dynamics of sexual abuse both from the victim's point of view and from the priest's, and she probes why the Church hierarchy, fellow priests, and lay people were silent for so long. Finally, Frawley-O'Dea examines factors internal to the Church and outside of it that drew this scandal into the public square and kept it there.

Legal disputes over worldwide, including the U.S., sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, and over efforts by Roman Catholic bishops to conceal clerical misconduct, have produced many headlines and public discussion. However, the precise legal issues involved remain a mystery to most observers. In this study, James O'Reilly and Margaret Chalmers examine the role of canon law in these cases and the interplay between the global church-based law and the laws of individual jurisdictions where criminal actions and lawsuits are brought.