Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. The Vicar of Christ, His Nemesis and a Prince's Scarlet Cardinal Sins

Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Theology - Historic Theology, Ecclesiastical History, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University, language: English, abstract: Like the recent searingly honest McCarrick-Report, this paper is a no-holds barred analysis of the sexual abuse scandal generated by the high-profile former Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick. This paper argues that the McCarrick-Report is a sign of a dysfunctional system held together by clericalism, patriarchy, secrecy, and sovereignty. Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church will not be rooted out unless the two twin villains of clericalism and patriarchy, secrecy and sovereignty are abolished. In terms of its hierarchy, it needs to reflect the rest of society comprising male and female, straight and gay, married and celibate, young and old. This paper highlights the unprecedented nature of this report from the Secretariat of State. As John Allen says, 'In the end, it's possible the McCarrick Report may be remembered as the single most consequential step toward reform during the Francis papacy, not only because of what it reveals about this particular case, but the precedent it sets for how all future cases ought to be handled. Once the genie of transparency is out of the bottle, that is, it's going to be awfully difficult to put it back in.' It is hoped that one of the corollaries of the McCarrick Report is to lead to a change in the way bishops are appointed in the Catholic Church. They ought to be elected by their constituency to a limited or even to a lower retirement age of 65 or whichever comes first.

Tarcisius Mukuka [Dipl. Pastoral Theol & Counselling, Dipl. Phil. & Rel. Studies, STB, SSL, PhD] is a biblical exegete by training. He holds a Licentiate in Biblical Exegesis from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and a doctorate in Biblical Hermeneutics from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Orality as Casualty: Contextual and Postcolonial Analysis of Biblical Hermeneutics in Bembaland" (2014). He is currently a lecturer in Religious Studies Education at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kabwe. His research interests include postcolonialism and the Bible, gender and the Bible, religion, politics and power. He is the author of "Spoken Voice/Written Word: Negotiating How We Hear/Read the Bible" (2016) published by Lambert Academic Publishing and "In the Eye of a Very Catholic Storm" (forthcoming), by Crown Arts Publishers