After decades of passively enabling abhorrent child abuse thanks to an indefensible culture of denial, zero accountability and adhering to a policy which sought to protect the reputation of an institution over the lives of children, the Australian Catholic Church has today conceded that the psychosexual effects of celibacy might have been a contributing factor to the thousands upon thousands of child sex abuse crimes committed by members of the clergy.
A report released today by the Truth, Justice and Healing Council responsible for drafting the Australian church’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has acknowledged a potential link, a major contributing factor suggested in the Oscar nominated documentary on child sex abuse in the Catholic church, Deliver Us From Evil, and recommended priests undergo “pyscho-sexual development”.
“Obligatory celibacy may also have contributed to abuse in some circumstances,” the report states. “Ongoing training and development, including pyscho-sexual development, is necessary for priests.”
The council’s chief executive officer Francis Sullivan said that while the church would not seriously consider eradicating celibacy as a requirement of clergymen, it needed to have an “honest and open” discussion on how best to manage it.
“We’ve got to ask the question about whether celibacy was an added and an unbearable strain for some,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that celibacy needs to be eradicated – let’s not turn the church on its head – but we are saying you can’t have an honest and open discussion about the future without having an honest and open discussion about celibacy. We are placing celibacy on the table.”
“The proper training, formation, the proper understanding of psychosexual issues for individuals has been raised, and it’s a no-brainer,” he said.
“When we have a public inquiry into the sex crimes in the Catholic Church, you need to address how sexuality is understood and acted out by members of the clergy,” he continued. “You need a very clear understanding about your own sexuality, your own sexual development, your own way of relating as a person to others. That’s called psychosexual education. Certainly in the past, there was none.”
Amen.
Via ABC
