Reference no: EM132716395

Sexual Abuse by Priests

Over the past several decades, more than 1,000 complaints of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests were reported to the Boston Archdiocese alone. The scandal broke in 2002 when one Boston priest was reassigned although molestation allegations against him had been passed to church authorities. Since then, hundreds of priests have been accused of sexually abusing minors, and hundreds of lawsuits have been filed. U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops convened and overwhelmingly voted to approve a policy that would permanently remove from the ministry any clergy who committed a single act of sexual abuse, no matter when it occurred. The Vatican rejected this policy, as elements of its zero-tolerance doctrine conflict with universal church law.

Instructions: 

Discuss the following :

• Why and what do you think of the response of Vatican?
• Does the Church's requirement that priests remain celibate contribute to the problem?
• What can members of religious groups do to help prevent such occurrences? (Many major religious groups have developed guidelines for handling cases of sexual harassment and abuse by clergy members.)