Talk on clerical abuse, by me

In November I gave a talk for the Iota Unum monthly series we have in London, on the subject of clerical abuse. The talk developed a chapter of my book, The Liturgy, the Family, and the Crisis of Modernity, which you can buy here (more about the book here).

What is distinctive about my approach to this topic--apart from the fact that I wade into it at all, as part of a traditionalist analysis of the crisis in the Church--is that I reject the idea that bishops and others inside and outside the Church cover up abuse as part of a risk-averse strategy to save the reputation of their institution. 

This idea is repeated so often that it has become habitual, but on examination it is obviously false. It would be far safer, for the reputation of the institution, to get the perpetrator to go away quietly once the accusations start piling up. This does happen, in fact, in many cases. What needs to be explained is why, instead of doing this, so many people in charge over so many years chose to fob off the victims and move the abuser to another position where he can abuse.

To find out what I think, listen to the talk, or better still, buy the book. That link will take you to the talk on a special website, but you can also find it on all the podcast platforms, if you search for 'Latin Mass Society'.

Support the Latin Mass Society