The most famous and respected Canon Law expert whistle-blower on earth gives his explanation as to the entire structure of the church. This should be compulsory reading for all advocates and survivors trying to understand the catastrophe of child sex abuse in this institution.

Read here the official documents:

Thomas-Doyle-Brief-Of-Evidence-Part-1

Thomas-Doyle-Brief-of-Evidence-Part-2

 

This submission, dated March 9, 2021, by Thomas Patrick Doyle, J.C.D., provides a detailed analysis of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, arguing that the root cause is systemic, embedded deeply within the ecclesiastical structure. Doyle, an ordained Catholic priest, canon lawyer, and licensed therapist, has been directly involved in this issue since 1982.Part One: The Multi-Faceted Nature of Sexual Abuse by Clergy

The document defines the phenomenon of sexual abuse in the Church as having three interconnected elements: the actual physical violation, the corporate response of the hierarchical leadership, and the lack of adequate pastoral and spiritual care for victims. The author argues that the core, foundational aspect of the problem is the corporate response of the Church’s leadership.

Historical and Financial Scope

• The 1984 case of Fr. Gilbert Gauthe in the U.S. is identified as the turning point that led to the worldwide disclosure and revelation of the systemic mismanagement of cases by official Church leaders, from the papacy down to diocesan bishops.
• Between 1986 and 2019, dioceses in the United States paid out nearly $US 4 billion in court awards and settlements to victims.

Canon Law and Accountability

• The Catholic Church’s internal regulatory system, canon law, is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the world.
• A crucial point is that civil laws supersede canon law in matters related to the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. Bishops are obligated to obey civil reporting laws.
• The canonical crime of sexual abuse has specific penalties, the most severe of which is laicization (dismissal from the clerical state). Bishops are also canonically obligated to investigate anonymous reports of abuse.

Reactions of Popes and Bishops

• Pope John Paul II’s response was largely described as “passive enabling,” where he sympathized with bishops, was critical of offenders, and tried to shift the blame to secular media and culture. He did not acknowledge or respond to letters from victim groups.
• Pope Benedict XVI’s response was mixed but more positive, as he met with victims, reopened the investigation against the founder of the Legion of Christ (Marcial Maciel Degollado), and laicized three bishops.
• Pope Francis has been more proactive, listening to victims, removing bishops, and laicizing five, including Cardinal McCarrick.

The Hierarchical Response

The overall response of the bishops worldwide has been marked by a pattern of negative and toxic behavior, including:

• Defensiveness and minimization of the issue.
• Blame-shifting onto the media, greedy lawyers, culture, and most shamefully, the victims themselves or their parents.
• Misplaced priorities by consistently putting the image, prestige, power, and financial security of the institution before the welfare of victims. The author notes that upon learning of abuse, the bishop’s first call in most known cases has been to an attorney, not the victim.

Part Two: The Systemic Problem

The document’s central thesis is that the root cause of the problem lies in the “barrel” – the ecclesiastical system upon which the institutional Church is built.

Governance, Priesthood, and Clericalism

• The Catholic Church is both a spiritual reality (the “People of God,” where all are fundamentally equal by baptism) and a socio-political structure that is hierarchical and monarchical in practice, with power centered in the pope and the bishops. The pope is accountable to no human power (canon 1404).
• The traditional theology of the priesthood, which teaches that a priest is “configured to Christ” and is a man set apart and above others, profoundly influences victims, predisposing them to abuse and making them unwilling or emotionally unable to report.
• The system fosters clericalism, an elitist mindset that believes clerics are intrinsically superior to the laity and deserve unquestioned respect. This culture supports clerical narcissism.

Enabling the Abuse

• The culture of the institutional Church enables abuse through a “spirituality infused with clericalism” and the fear caused by religious duress.
• The consequence for victims is that the damage only begins with the sexual violation and continues and intensifies as they are abused again by the institution’s response—viewed as a threat, not as wounded persons.
• Sexual abuse by a cleric is uniquely painful and destructive—”soul murder”—because the victim is abused by a person they were taught takes the place of God. Church officials have largely failed to recognize or address this profound spiritual damage.

Conclusion on Accountability

• The author concludes that the long-running problem has been a “train wreck” due to the failure of the hierarchy to be pastors and the inadequacy of canon law.
• Accountability for bishops themselves has been a major concern, encompassing bishops who have abused, those who enabled abusers, and those who hired lawyers to oppose victims.
• The Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis, Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019), was a step forward, establishing that a bishop’s interference in an investigation is a canonical crime and requiring a public system for reporting abuse.
• The final analysis is that the Church cannot clean itself up and that for true change to occur, everyone in the Church must accept the central role of victims.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here below the video of Murray Heasley and Liz Tonks addressing the commissioners on behalf of victim survivors at the beginning of the hearing

Check also the Podcast THE RECKONING with interview of Tom Doyle by Murray Heasley!