International Expert Meeting organized by the International Catholic Jurists Forum was held at Ave Maria School of Law from September 24-26, 2018. 

In 2018, as reports of clerical sexual misconduct in Chile, Honduras, and the United States roiled the Catholic Church, an international meeting of experts in journalism, law, pastoral care, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology was convened to examine the incidence of clerical sexual abuse of males. The gathering brought together scholars and practitioners from multiple disciplines to analyze the problem from legal, social, pastoral, and theological perspectives.

Under the editorship of Jane F. Adolphe and Ronald J. Rychlak, Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis is the result of that meeting and the scholarly studies it generated. The volume examines the roots of clerical sexual misconduct, the cultural and institutional factors that contribute to abuse, and the legal and pastoral responses needed to address the problem and promote accountability.

The book is organized into four major sections:

Part I: Challenges — Church Culture and the Social Sciences
This section explores the available data on clerical sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and examines prevalent cultural myths that can obscure the roots of the problem.

Part II: Contributing Factors — Extra-Church and Intra-Church Influences
These essays situate clerical sexual abuse within broader cultural and institutional contexts, including societal factors, organizational culture within the Church, and the phenomenon of clericalism.

Part III: Consequences — Legal and Policy Issues
This section analyzes the role of Canon Law, Criminal Law, and Civil

Law in addressing clerical misconduct and examines the legal frameworks governing accountability, punishment, and prevention.

Part IV: Charting the Course Forward — Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Reflections
The final section reflects on the theological and pastoral foundations necessary for an authentic and lasting response to the crisis within the life of the Church.

The results of this conference were published in the book Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis, Volume I.

About the Editors

Jane F. Adolphe is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida; Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Law in Sydney, Australia; and a former expert with the Holy See’s Secretariat of State, Section for Relations with States. She has co-edited several books, including The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East: Prevention, Prohibition, and Prosecution; Equality and Non-Discrimination: Catholic Roots, Current Challenges; and St. Paul, the Natural Law, and Contemporary Legal Theory.

Ronald J. Rychlak is Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi, advisor to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations, and serves on advisory boards for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. He has authored numerous books, including Hitler, the War, and the Pope; Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis; and Disinformation (with Ion M. Pacepa). He also edited American Law from a Catholic Perspective: Through a Clearer Lens.