The Need for the Historiographical Approach to Understand and Address the Sex Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church

Abstract

Two dominant approaches shaping the understanding of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The first is investigative journalism which broke the news on the depth and magnitude of the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. The second is the courtroom approach. This essay argues for the need of the historiographical approach, aimed at understanding the abuse crisis as a complex historical phenomenon in a comparative perspective. The effort to conceive of and study the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church as an historical issue must not be confused with the wrong and dangerous idea that the crisis is only in the past, that the problem has been solved. On the contrary, it must be understood as part of the effort to address the crisis through a deeper comprehension of the roots and mechanisms of abuse itself, of the cover-up, and of the failure to respond to it.