Abstract
Marie Keenan, Child Sexual Abuse and The Catholic Church: Gender, Power, and Organizational Culture, Oxford University Press: Oxford and New York, 2012; xxx + 355 pp.: ISBN 0199895678 (hbk), 9780199328970 (pbk), 9780199895670 (hbk.) 9780199895670 (hbk)
Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power, and Organizational Culture by Marie Keenan is a beautifully written, accessible, and intellectually rigorous book. Keenan's examination of the scandalous cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland is based on qualitative interviews with nine priests who sexually abused children, as well as a vast body of literature in theology, history, psychology, and social and critical theory. From this sophisticated interdisciplinary perspective we learn one of the most important contributions of this book: the sexual abuse of children by priests in Ireland (and convincingly, anywhere on earth where the Catholic Church has touched a soul) is a complex problem that can only be understood within the context of contemporary Catholicism and priestly formation.
Keenan's multidimensional approach is grounded in more than 900 scholarly references and other relevant documents. She challenges simplistic popular discourses that demonize these priests as pedophiles suffering from an overwhelming sex drive, as well as psychologically based interpretations that look for causes in flawed individual development. Her intent is not to justify the behavior of these priests, but rather to stimulate a more systematic and critical analysis of this extensively entrenched social problem. The result is a remarkable book that elevates our comprehension and also highlights new directions for intervention as well as establishing a more realistic basis from which to demand accountability.
Why does sexual abuse by priests happen? Based on her interviews and her critical engagement with the literature, Keenan suggests five interrelated processes that explain this phenomenon. First, the theology of clerical sexuality has not only prohibited a male sexual expression, it has also “problematized” sexual desire in the lives of priests in a way that denies this aspect of their humanity. The split between “spirit” and “matter” has been institutionalized in a culture of celibacy in ways that do not reflect the everyday relational experiences of priests. As “representatives of God on earth,” priests are trained to take care of others with regard to morality, emotional life, and sexuality while, paradoxically neglecting themselves in these dimensions. Formation does not prepare young seminarians to deal with their own developmental challenges with regard to sexuality, intimacy, or touch.
Further, in a religious culture of silence and denial regarding personal sexuality, sex and sexual matters are to be feared and kept undisclosed. Silence with regard to anything sexual, however, may have an opportunity to be broken within the context of the confessional. The anonymity and confidentiality of the confessional may offer safety to share and disclose to God through one of his representatives; paradoxically, the very nature of the theology of sacrament of confession feeds back into a system now as a shared secret, which then becomes unreported in the case of child sexual abuse. Keenan's informants often shared their experiences of sexual abuse with their confessors, yet only one confessor in one occasion identified the criminal nature of the sexual offense.
Second, according to Keenan there is a paradox of “powerless and powerful” that is at the core of sexual offending. While priests follow an ethic of obedience and submissiveness regarding to how power operates in the upward direction, the absence of clear guidance of how authority should operate downward results in priests who are untrained, unsupervised, unchallenged, and unregulated as they exercise public power. Paradoxically, the men Keenan interviewed perceive youth and children under their moral authority as “equals.” It was precisely the power blindness in the emotional and sexual dimension (i.e., emotional and sex immaturity) that became part of the problem.
Third, a priest who is trained to deny his sexual and emotional life tends to over-identify with the clerical role; a man who is “always a priest” has no boundaries between the clerical identity and his life as a man with human desires and interests. This over-identification may result in a split between public persona and private life. Inappropriate sexual conduct, among other coping behaviors, may result from the split and the double life-styles some priests live.
Fourth, the clerical sexual perpetrators that Keenan interviewed were completely aware of the moral absolutes of Catholic moral thought and did everything possible to live their lives by such moral norms. The challenge was precisely that absolute norms were both insufficient and impossible to live and these men did not possess the emotional and relational intelligence to make good judgments. Emotional engagement with regard to children's lives, emotion, and sexuality and training regarding the moral judgment regarding these and other issues were absent in these men's life stories. In short, it would appear that these priests experienced a kind of dissociation between the implausibility of the moral rules they were expected to live by and the coping mechanisms they exercised through “double lives.” This personal level of dissociation reflects the institutional level of disengagement discussed earlier with regard to the complete absence of realistic training and engagement with regard to everyday relational experiences.
Finally, as men with public moral authority – who might be loved as priests but unknown as humans – they may experience emotional and social loneliness and isolation which might have had its roots in the silence, secrecy, lack of honesty, and self-neglect that Keenan and related literatures argue is endemic in the lives of Catholic priests. These men found themselves without the training, skills, or language to make sense of their sexual and relational desires and to develop appropriate and healthy emotional and sex lives as they deciphered celibacy.
One of Keenan's most notable contributions comes through her engagement with the literature in masculinities. She introduces the concept of “Perfect Celibate Clerical Masculinity” to identify a form of hegemonic masculinity that exists in the ideals of Catholic priestly formation and that arguably makes men who are priests vulnerable to sexually abusing children. This form of masculinity is “sexless” and is based on self-denial and a form of manhood based on purity, chastity, idealized and unrealistic aspirations, and denial of sexuality, sexual desire, and human need for intimacy. She also introduces two alternative expressions of masculinity: (1) “Compassionate Celibate Clerical Masculinity,” which identifies clerics who engage in sexual and emotional experiences with other adults (women or men), but who feel conflicted by the celibacy as a moral commitment and guilty for not being able to comply with the institutional expectation; and (2) “Incongruous Celibate Clerical Masculinity,” which is embraced by clerics who similarly engage with adults to freely live the sex and emotional dimensions of their humanity but without feeling shame or guilt.
Keenan validates in more than one way urgent concerns addressed in sexuality studies scholarship, education, and policy. Despite facing what might be the most intense and revealing crisis in its history, institutional Catholicism clings to the notion that sex is “dark, dirty, and unclean.” The institutional resistance to engage in any 21st-century realistic discussion on celibacy and human sexuality perpetuates a cultural attitude in which dishonesty through silence is favored over open discussion. Celibacy per se is not the root cause of sexual abuse of minors; but the Catholic sex ethic and a theology of priesthood that “problematizes” the erotic and sexual desire, and splits the body and spirit with an emphasis on chastity and purity over a relational ethic may be.
In sum, Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church stimulates our intellectual inquiry in creative and highly needed new directions. This courageous book offers important contributions to sexuality and gender studies, masculinity theorizing, child and sexual abuse research, and critical scholarship on theology and the Catholic Church – this is a must read for anyone interested in these fields. Although the book is focused on sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Anglophone world, it will be an eye opener to priests, scholars, and others concerned about these issues in Latin America and US Latina and Latino communities. In general, professionals and other advocates breaking new ground and actively engaging in long overdue, urgently needed conversations about human sexuality, celibacy, and sexual violence within the Catholic Church – locally, nationally, and in Rome – will likely find this book illuminating.