Enforcing the Canon Law: Normative Pluralism and Clerical Abuse in the Catholic Church

Abstract

This article investigates why clerical abuse of Catholic priests persists in the Church using the sociological and normative pluralist perspectives. It analyzes how the various informal normative standards of the Church — doctrinal, ethical, or biblical — affect the enforcement of Canon Law on clerical abuse by bishops, particularly on how they decide on specific cases on the diocesan level. It also investigates how the cultural values and norms influence the bishop’s decision whether to sanction erring priests or not or to prosecute abuse cases in civil courts. Unlike the state, the Church has no professional judicial system with a set of legal codes, a hierarchy of ecclesial judges and prosecutors, as well as a comprehensive penal law to assess cases of clerical abuse objectively following the principle of “rule of law.” Thus, the informal norms of mercy and compassion, eternal character of the priesthood, camaraderie in the ministry of priests, and other cultural values and norms in the local culture, tend to dominate over the strict penal provisions of the Canon Law against clerical abuse in the bishops’ investigation and decision. Faced with multiple normative criteria in judging abuse cases and given wide ecclesial powers by the Church, local bishops then acquire more discretionary powers to keep investigations of clerical abuse internally in the spirit of evangelical mercy and compassion to preserve Church’s unity and collegiality of the clergy. This strategy, however, faces the risk of being seen by victims and Church members as a cover-up and grave injustice.