Clerical Child Sexual Abuse Cases in Catholicism: Centering the Role of the Vatican

Brian Conway

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Chapter 3 Clerical Child Sexual Abuse Cases in Catholicism: Centering the Role of the Vatican

In: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Volume 16 (2025)

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Brian Conway

Brian Conway
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 56–74

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004746695_005

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Abstract

Although a significant body of research exists on the topic of Catholic child sexual abuse, relatively little attention has been paid to the role and influence of the Vatican in shaping its emergence and development. How can the relationship between the Vatican and national churches in managing cases be characterised? Based on a study of the Irish case, with two other national churches (Germany and the US) as points of comparison, this chapter attempts to show how the Vatican sought to steer the direction national churches took with regard to managing abuse cases while, at the same time, decentralising responsibility to the local context. This meant that national hierarchies seeking to advance child protection had to look over their shoulder to the Vatican, even as the Vatican was not always supportive of locally developed responses. Likewise, the German and US cases also reveal a similar (de)centralising dynamic. And although advances in developing commonalities in responses to abuse across disparate contexts are evident in worldwide Catholicism in more recent times, this remains hampered by different world regional experiences of abuse on the one hand and lingering Vatican bureaucracy deficits on the other. Overall, this analysis suggests that local church–Vatican interactions led to tensions between different levels of the church and contributed to the prolongation of the problem.

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Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Volume 16 (2025)

From Cases to Scandals: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Series: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, Volume: 16

Cover Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Volume 16 (2025)

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004746695

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 12 Nov 2025

Subjects
- Religious Studies
  - History of Religion
  - Sociology of Religion
- Social Sciences
  - Religion & Society

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Chapter 3 Clerical Child Sexual Abuse Cases in Catholicism: Centering the Role of the Vatican

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Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Volume 16 (2025)

From Cases to Scandals: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

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