Institutional Authoritarian Practices

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines institutional authoritarian practices surrounding child sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy. It starts with a focus on the handling of allegations against five priests at two sites within the Catholic Church: the Irish diocese of Cloyne and the Salesian order’s Australia-Pacific province. From there, it widens out to consider broader patterns associated with covering up clergy abuse in other Irish dioceses and elsewhere in the Salesian order, contextualizing them within to national-level Church initiatives to handle child sexual abuse complaints and the Vatican’s responses. By applying an authoritarian practices perspective, the chapter shows how the Catholic Church’s main organizational and cultural features—shared to a varying extent by other religious institutions—may foster silencing, secrecy, and lies. A culture of obedience impeded internal critiques and whistle-blowing. Church doctrines encompassed various forms of secrecy. Reputation was naturally believed to be best protected by secrecy, not by reform. The Church’s governance structure facilitated keeping sensitive information restricted. Sex in general, and ordained priests having sexual urges in particular, was a taboo subject. And a sense of clerical superiority facilitated devaluing and disbelieving the voices of victims. While Pope Francis I has made important changes in the Church’s handling of clerical abuse, the Catholic Church’s main organizational and cultural features persist.