Sexual abuse perpetrated by Roman Catholic priests and religious

Abstract

This paper is based upon an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) which investigated the experiences of twelve people who had been sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests or religious. The premise of the research was based upon a perceived assumption that distinct forms of sexual traumatology generate unique trauma characteristics not accounted for within the existing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) conceptual frameworks (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ((DSM-IVTR 2000;) ICD-10 R, 2007). Recent developments in psychodiagnostics to support the relevance of religious concerns where incorporated into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV edition (1994) which allowed a range of “religious” and “spiritual” problems to be explicitly identified as a focus for specific clinical attention. However, these appear quite vague in accounting for the range of trauma experiences experienced by this participant group. Evidence arose which indicated the majority of the research participants considered “God” to have been integral within the abuse, manipulated by design or default by the cleric or religious perpetrator. These idiosyncratic trauma characteristic created significant anxiety and distress in areas such as theological belief, crisis of faith, and fears surrounding the participant's own mortality. The IPA research identified six distinct, themed differences of which four will be discussed in more detail for the purpose of this paper. It will consider the attributes of these themes in relation to Roman Catholicism, celibacy and Canon law, and further question the sufficiency of the DSM-IV “V” Codes in accounting for the myriad of symptoms survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by Roman Catholic Priests and Religious actually describe.