Reproductive Abuse in the Context of Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Abstract

In a significant number of cases, clerical sex offenders impregnate their victims and force them into hiding, abortion, or adoption. This phenomenon is referred to in this paper as reproductive abuse. Clearly, most victims of reproductive abuse are adults, but even among minor victims of clerical child abuse, between 1 and 10 percent may have experienced reproductive abuse. On the basis of pertinent studies, this paper explores archival material on several dozen allegations of reproductive abuse in the context of clergy sexual abuse of minors in the US Catholic Church. Besides some tentative estimates of the general frequency of the phenomenon, this paper offers a distinction of three different types of reproductive abuse and an analysis of the interplay of clericalist and secular misogyny, which appears to be largely responsible for the silencing of victims as well as for the impunity of perpetrators and leads to the invisibility of this phenomenon, despite the high importance attributed to reproductive issues in the Catholic context.

A concept analysis of misconduct: Application to nursing education

“…However, the consequences may be seen mainly in people confronting the clergy's misconduct in forms of betrayed trust and psychological and physical harm. [31][32][33][34] It can be concluded that the religious world shared common terms in describing misconduct; the common attributes were extortion, misuse of authority, abusive behaviors, and breaking the vows. The antecedents were a lack of attachment to religiosity and dysfunctional families, negligence, and misuse of authority and power.…”

“…Betrayed trust and psychological and physical harm were the expected consequences of misconduct. [30][31][32][33][34]…”

Unchaste Celibates: Clergy Sexual Misconduct against Adults—Expressions, Definitions, and Harms

“…While force obviously does occur within CSMAA events (see Kennedy 2009, pp. 13, 110, 123-24, 130, 144, 149-51;Reisinger 2022;The Pillar 2022), because of the power to groom and deceive, it does not seem to be as needed in religious contexts. Furthermore, however, there is also a more subtle form of force that can be used such as blackmail using professional/client-based in-depth knowledge of the client's private life.…”

“…These are mentioned here because they occur (for examples, see Kennedy 2009, pp. 13, 110, 123-24, 130, 144, 149-51;Reisinger 2022; The Pillar 2022). However, while these crimes are deeply heinous, of concern here are the contexts of CSMAA where distress and confusion exist because of grooming, consent doubt, and entrapment at the hands of powerful clergy in the context of adult vulnerability.…”

Kadahilanan, Kaakuhan, and Kaunawaan: Yielding the Unheard Narratives of Student Atheists in a Science High School

“…As mentioned by Schiavone and Gervais (2017), the level of religiosity in a country is proportional to the closed-mindedness toward certain issues. Some of the consequences include radical church teachings promoting Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/edukasiana/ homophobia or hostility towards members of the LGBTQ+ community (Callaghan & van Leent, 2019), misogyny or discrimination against women (Beattie, 2018;Hogan, 2015;Reisinger, 2022), among others. These issues were even worse in earlier times (Greenberg, 1982), and their effects on society persist, though not to the same extreme extent.…”