Experts meet to compile book on clergy sexual abuse
By Matthew Meyerhofer
Experts from a variety of fields including priests, psychologists, journalists, lawyers and theologians will be meeting at Santa Clara this week to discuss and write a book about the sex abuse scandals that have been plaguing the Catholic Church.
The converence, on May 30 and 31, is part of the "Sins Against the Innocent" project organized by Thomas Plante, clinical psybhologist and psychology professor at Santa Clara.
"This project is very unique because it brings together leading experts from a variety of fields who can offer a thoughful, scholarly, reasons approach to the problem," Plants said. "Then, this hopefully will lead to better ways to prevent abuse and deal with it when it happens."
According to Plante, what sets this apart from previous investigations is the diversity of the professsions that are assisting int he analysis. Each member of the project will be contributing one chapter to the book, and a part of the conference includes the opportunity for everyone to meet to share the preliminary drafts of their chapters with each other.
The conference will include Vatican correspondent John Allen Jr., Boston Globe reporter Michael Rezendes, and national victims' group director David Clohessy, as well as Santa Clara faculty and staff. Various other experts, drawn from a diverse assortment of backgrounds and professions, were also chosen to offer different perspectives on the issue.
According to Kirk Hanson, Executive Director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, which is co-sponsoring the project, a major goal will be to get past the newspaper headlines to the heart of the issue.
ìI think there are many myths about the sex abuse crisis rampant in the country. This book will hopefully provide accurate information, which will dispel many of the myths,î Hanson said. ìThe book should guide future handling of the issue by the bishops and others, and the public will benefit from it being managed better.î
Hanson said the aim of the project is to bring together all of the best thinking that has been applied to the problem so that individuals dealing with the issue have a complete of perspective the situation.
The book that is published as a result of the project could also be of use to bishops and other diocesan officials dealing with the problem, as well as individuals in the legal community who are dealing with the sex abuse scandal.
Topics of the conference will include treatment for priests who were abusers, questions about whether and how these priests can be rehabilitated, questions about what bishops owe the public in terms of information and protection, and other perspectives on how bishops can prevent these problems from occurring in the future.
Plante, who will be the editor of the book produced in the project, organized a similar project back in 1998 that dealt with the same issue. However, that project, which culminated in the book ìBless Me Father, For I Have Sinned: Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed by Roman Catholic Priests,î invited only the perspectives of mental health professionals who were experts on clergy abuse.
David DeCosse, director of Campus Ethics Programs in the Markkula Center, will be the assistant editor in the ìSins Against the Innocentî project. De Cosse edited a report on the Lousisana clergy sex scandals, which first brought the issue of clergy abuse to national attention.
One part of the conference includes a symposium for members of the university community at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 30. Faculty and students are welcome to attend.
According to Hanson, the book should be sent to publishers in fall published next spring, less than a year after the conference takes place.
Many students have expressed outrage at the scandals that have engulfed the Catholic Church, and some say that a lack of real information is the primary cause for the trouble that the church is now facing.
ìThe media coverage of the scandal has lead people to believe that priests are sexually deprived and therefore molest children,î said freshman Elise Levine. ìI don't think there is any direct correlation.î
Freshman Rachel Wolf said that she has similar concerns regarding the frenzy that surrounds the issue and the decisions that are often made as a result of media coverage.
ìThe tragedy is that a simple accusation destroys a priest's career,î Wolf said. ìPriests are losing their jobs and their reputations before an investigation or a trial is even conducted.î