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ILP #3

Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

I used Google to search for the recommended book in theology on Catholic churches and

sexual abuse. The book that showed up after many searches was Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in

the Catholic Church. Its author is Leon J. Podles, who is a former federal investigator, gives a

clearer perspective on sexual abuse in Catholic churches. I chose the book as it is both

academic and related to the topic. I used Google search engines to look for the book, read the

introduction and summary. The reason I used Google was that it is diverse in information and

related data. The exigence and kairos of the book come in a time when there was so much

speculation surrounding the largest institution in the world. In it, he elaborates the history and

the future surrounding Catholicism.

The chapter chosen in relation to Stasis Theory is titled Scope of Destruction. The main claim

in this chosen chapter is that children are indeed sexually abused and there are reasons why a

priest or bishop would sexually abuse a child or rape a nun. The claims made are that priest,

bishops do have boundaries, and there are reasons behind a religious leader being a sexual

one, and this being a something that has been happening for a long time. Using the Toulmin

Analysis, the claim made here is that sexual abuse does happen in the Catholic Church. The

chapter’s excerpt – ‘everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not to his own facts’ explains

that priests are human too and have problems and challenges, and have trouble making

ethical decisions at time The grounds of this reasoning is the claims made to the authorities

about the assaults going on without anything being done. What warrants these claims are the

reports made, movements, and hash tags that spread the word on sexual assaults in Catholic

Churches by priests is something real and the abused are seeking justice. The backing to the

claims are the numbers reported of nuns having babies, others seeking abortions while others

commit suicide (Saroglou, 1333). It may not really be priests who do wrong, maybe the nuns

at times are wayward and seduce a religious leader. In retribution, although remedy is sought

for this scrounge, the damage has been extensively done to both the Catholic Church, religion

and the abused. This chapters argument explains the start of such an idea to its manifestation.

Besides a priest abusing an altar boy, it further explains what factors make the leader want to

do that repeatedly. It better shapes the understanding of this historical demise and the future.

The chapter also tries defining the evil nature in ‘Evil is not a division between groups of

people, them and us. It is a line that runs through each human heart’ by trying to define the

different types of religious offenders (Plante and McChesney,115).

The author, Leon J. Podles, is a credible source as with the number of publications he has and

his former profession as a Federal Investigator. He has been on various magazines and

publications and he is a senior editor at Touchstone. He is also a Christian with an NGO

dedicated to furthering the Christianity culture. The inclination in his book is in the claims of

celibacy being a reason why this happens. Leon J. Podles did handle the bias ethically. He,

however, stands with the reasoning that not having sex cannot be a reason that makes

children sexually desirable objects. The various stakeholders include the religious leaders, the

church, the religion and those affected. They risk losing their jobs, the church gets a bad

reputation and so does the religion and those affected are forever traumatized. What I realized

about the situation is its future. It has been happening for a long time now and still is

happening (Leon, 59). Will action ever be taken?

Works Cited

Plante, H., & McChesney, G. ‘Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis,’.

Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger (2011): 90 – 119

Saroglou, X. ‘Believing, bonding, behaving and belonging: The Big Four Religious

Dimensions and Cultural Variation: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. (2011): 1320–

1340

Leon J. Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. (1999): 56-60