A healing community for Catholic Clergy : an holistic model for community intervention
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Date
2003
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Abstract
"To penetrate the mysteries, to bless with good conscience, to be great yet empty, to return to stillness and be forgiven, to do good deeds and help people reach the other shore — these are the great benefits of our path of cultivation. To calm people in stormy times, to help them understand the nature of things, to maintain purity, to nourish all things, to respect all life, and to answer the needs of those whose beliefs come from the heart — The sun rises, the darkness is banished; and we are witness to true wonder" (The Religion of Light, 1005).
Research in the area of clerical paedophilia in the Catholic Church initially focused on managing the problem at the level of treatment intervention, with treatment centres run by religious orders in the UK and USA. Protocols have been developed worldwide to deal with reports or complaints against Catholic clergy who have allegedly interfered sexually with a child. Yet consideration and evaluation of this intervention clearly highlights the 'after the fact' nature of intervention.
Leaders of the Catholic Church are certainly aware of the need for the prevention of mental ill-health, and the promotion of mental health in their ranks. However, it is the negative and vast publicity given to child molestation, and the immediate damage inflicted on the Catholic Church, that has resulted in a 'mop-up operation' rather than an exploration of causes and interventions aimed at prevention and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
Recently, however, psychologists and philosophers, who have been called on to evaluate the problem in the USA, the UK, Southern Africa, and Australia, have been asking questions such as: Why does this happen in the Catholic Church? Or, more to the point, what needs to be done about it? My guiding hypothesis for the research was: Do Catholic priests constitute a high-risk category for mental ill-health? As regards the second question — what is to be done? — I propose the establishment of a Community Health Centre for Catholic clergy. My research addresses both questions. As regards the first question, the evidence — gathered through interviews and workshops over a period of eight years — points to the conclusion that paedophilia is not purely a problem of intra-psychic factors but also a symptom of the closed and isolated nature of the Catholic institution, whose structures both attract and give life to, otherwise possibly latent pathology. In addition, many priests — young and old — feel unheard and misunderstood, and perceive themselves to have been inadequately trained and poorly supported and managed. It is possible that, combining both intra-psychic repression and institutional suppression, the potential for a disaster such as the crisis the Catholic Church faces today, is created.
The community of Catholic priests is perhaps not conceptualized, nor cared for, as a community of male human beings. It is precisely a working model of this community care for Catholic priests, that is being explored in this thesis.
This thesis presents a working model - or a work in progress — where any assessment is related to healing and therapeutic intervention, in intentionality and orientation.
Description
Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Zululand, 2003.
Keywords
Catholic clergy-child sexual abuse, Catholic clerk-intra-psychic repression