Safeguarding Culture in the Catholic Church of England and Wales in the Twenty-First Century: An Examination of Progress.

In the wake of reported scandals of child sexual abuse by Roman catholic priests in mainstream media in the 1980s/1990s and conviction of Catholic priests on similar charges in England and Wales, Lord Nolan was invited by the Archbishop of Westminster in 2000 to undertake a review of child safeguarding policies of the Catholic Church of England and Wales since 1994, known as the Nolan Report. The Nolan Report led to the establishment of the first Catholic Office for protection of children (COPCA) which remained operative from 2001-2007 before being later modified in light of the Cumberlege Review (2007) as the National Child Safeguarding Commission (NCSC) and the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory service (CSAS) since 2008 which continue to operate till today. This article conducts a hermeneutical analysis of the Nolan Report, the Cumberlege Report, the annual reports of COPCA and the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission from 2007 till 2017. Wider academic literature on the subject is included in order to critically examine the performance of these child safeguarding structures developed to prevent and control clerical sexual abuse and to evaluate the utility of the child protection measures in place within the Catholic Church of England and Wales, since 2001.

Why the Focus of Clerical Child Sexual Abuse has Largely Remained on the Catholic Church amongst Other Non-Catholic Christian Denominations and Religions.

The current study considers reasons for the consistent focus of academic research and mainstream media on clerical child sexual abuse (cCSA) largely within the Roman Catholic Church, seeming to ignore cCSA in other Christian denominations and religions. This study includes an analysis of traditional mainstream media and case reports on cCSA in non-Catholic churches and other religious faiths. The authors highlight the inadequacy of research and identify a wide range of gaps in this so far neglected area. Commonalities of cCSA and institutional responses are identified across denominations and religions, and reasons for the apparent over focus on the Catholic Church are discussed. The mains potential reasons identified were: (a) the centralized nature of the Church's universal organizational stature and management structure; (b) the anti-Catholic political and media bias in Protestant-dominated developed countries; (c) secular legal systems with access to powerful lawyers and insurance companies to locate responsibility at organizational level in order to seek compensation and finally; (d) the organized institutional power exercisable by respective bishops to silence victims. Future research needs to move beyond analysis of existing academic literature, press, and case review reports to comparative empirical studies across denominations and religions.

The Roman Catholic Church: A Centuries Old History of Awareness of Clerical Child Sexual Abuse (from the First to the 19th Century).

Debates in international forums and in mainstream media on the role, responsibility, liability, and response of ecclesiastical authorities of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) toward clerical child sexual abuse (cCSA) fail to take into account the historical roots and awareness of the problem. Reports also fail to mention the historic organizational laws RCC developed over centuries. In contrast, RCC documents evidence that the Catholic Church not only carried century's old history of cCSA, but also repeatedly condemned cCSA by successive papal authorities, organizational laws, and institutional management mechanisms. During the first millennium, however, church laws remained confined to the bookshelves and were not converted into appropriate management policies and infrastructural models. This was largely due to the absence of a central administrative organizational structure, which developed later in the 12th century, following the Second Council of Lateran (1139) when the Papacy asserted its authority to establish administrative control over the organizational church. It was only then that management policies started to be framed and institutional structures enacted to deal more appropriately with cCSA from the 14th to 20th centuries. Despite this, RCC developed a culture of secrecy using clandestine organizational management models and institutional laws prescribed in 1568, 1622, 1741, 1866, 1922, and 1962 which aimed to manage cCSA. The current study traces reported cCSA as far back as the first century and critically examines the organizational laws, and institutional policies developed by RCC to address clerical sexual misconduct up to the end of the 19th century.

Kenyan Religious Leaders' Views on Same-Sex Sexuality and Gender Nonconformity: Religious Freedom versus Constitutional Rights.

Religion plays an important role in framing the public discourse on sexuality, especially in countries where religion fully permeates social life. We explored the perspectives of Kenyan religious leaders on sexual and gender diversity in their country's specific context. A total of 212 Catholic, Islamic, and Protestant leaders from urban centers and rural townships completed a self-administered questionnaire specifically developed for this study. The leaders' perspectives were predominantly negative. Limited acceptance was conditional on sexual minorities not engaging in same-sex practices or seeing such practices as sinful. A substantial minority (37%) endorsed the use of violence for maintaining social values, especially regarding homosexuality and gender nonconformity. The majority of religious leaders agreed on the difference between civil law and religious doctrine. Human rights principles enshrined in Kenya's Constitution were considered to be applicable to sexual and gender minorities. Decriminalization of same-sex sexuality was seen as against one's religion. Perspectives were less negative if leaders were familiar with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. Interventions that promote intergroup contact could be effective in changing religious leaders' mind-sets and advancing human rights and health for sexual and gender minorities.

Ecclesiastical Endorsing Organizations. Final rule.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its medical regulations by establishing in regulation the eligibility requirements that ecclesiastical endorsing organizations must meet in order to provide ecclesiastical endorsements of individuals seeking employment as VA chaplains, or of individuals who are seeking to be engaged by VA under contract or appointed as on-facility fee basis VA chaplains under the United States Code. VA considers veterans' spiritual care an integral part of their overall health care. As such, VA is committed to providing qualified VA chaplains to address the veterans' spiritual needs by engaging chaplains that are ecclesiastically endorsed. Ecclesiastical endorsement certifies that the individual is qualified to perform all the religious sacraments, rites, rituals, ceremonies and ordinances needed by members of a particular faith.

The barriers to a national inquiry into child sexual abuse in the United States.

There is an often-overlooked but critical factor at the center of institutional child sexual abuse that must be acknowledged and addressed: adults tend to place the interest of institutions and other adults above the protection of children. As the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has shown, this phenomenon is evident across institutional settings and any institutional reform aimed at improving child safety must therefore guard against this tendency if it is to be effective in protecting children. In the United States there are also other barriers to dealing with child sexual abuse in institutional contexts. State government responses to the challenges of child sexual abuse have varied. However, the federal governmsent has been silent on the problem of religious institutional sexual abuse. This commentary considers how the politics of religious liberty in the United States inhibits action by protecting institutions that cover up child sexual abuse.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse received more reports of sexual abuse of minors from victims of personnel from the Catholic Church than from any other source. It looked beyond the circumstances of the individual reports, to the response of Church leaders. It then took the inquiry to the more fundamental issue of the elements of the Church's structure and its unique culture that enabled sexual abuse and supported the hierarchy's counter-productive responses. This commentary looks at the structural and cultural aspects of the institutional Church most directly connected to sexual abuse by clerics and the ensuing cover-up and it examines their theological and historical foundations. The reality that sexual abuse by clerics was not only known but condoned and covered up cannot be justified but it can be explained in great part by the Church's justification for its own structure and the role of its clerics.

[Hospital chaplain, or "spiritual assistant"? - pitfalls of missing legislative framework]. / Nemocnicní kaplan, ci "spirituální asistent"? - úskalí chybejícího legislativního rámce.

As military and prison chaplains have been active in the military or prison service for many years, nowadays, hospital chaplains have been active in many hospitals in the Czech Republic, too. The work of hospital chaplains, however, still lacks the necessary legislative framework and being embodied in law, which brings some drawbacks. These include primarily non-participation of the ministry of health as a contractual partner in the agreement on spiritual care in health care, the lack of a framework that would arrange the status of chaplains among other health professionals and the related uncertainty regarding career and competency profile of a chaplain.Moreover, the ministry has not set clear rules for the work of chaplains in hospitals, and due to this fact, it has created the space for providing this service also by unqualified persons. This may ultimately have a negative impact on patients. It is therefore the responsibility of the hospital management to arrange that only professional hospital chaplains sent to hospitals on the basis of an agreement between the hospital and the relevant church work there.Key words: hospital chaplain, spiritual assistant, health care system, legislation.

[The evolution of the canons law code and the mental nature reasons of marital incapacity during the last 25 years]. / Ewolucja tytulów kodeksowych i przyczyn natury psychicznej niezdolnosci do zawarcia malzenstwa w okresie minionych 25 lat.

AIM: The aim of the article was to investigate how during the last 25 years of implementation of the new canons law code changed the use of these new law regulations by the church lawyers as well as the mental causes for marital incapacity. METHOD: The basis of investigation was the analysis of 135 forensic-psychiatric opinions made by the author for the Metropolitan Tribunal of Gniezno in the legal proceedings carried out in the years 1984-2008. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of the analysis, the author got the following results. During the first 10 years of implementation of the new canon law code, the legal proceedings were carried on mostly of no 1 or together of no 1 and no 3 canon 1095, but during the last 15 years mostly of no 3 this canon of mental incapacity to undertaking the essentials marital duties. The mental causes of the marital incapacity also changed very significantly in this time. During the first 15 years, there were serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy or oligophrenia, but during the last 10 years the main causes of incapacity to undertaking the essential marital duties were personality disorders, alcohol dependences or psychosexual deviations.

A single-case study of rabbinic sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community.

This paper considers a case of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by a rabbi within an Orthodox Jewish community. The material is drawn from public records and interviews conducted with the family of the reported victim and others involved in the matter. Consideration is given to judicial procedures unique to the traditional Jewish community and how such procedures, while developed to foster justice within the Jewish community, at times may interfere with secular criminal procedures.

Restorative mediation: the application of restorative justice practice and philosophy to clergy sexual abuse cases.

This article will present the restorative justice model and examine how the restorative justice philosophy and process can be applied to clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse and religious sexual misconduct to resolve legal claims and allow the process of healing to begin. Restorative justice is a holistic approach to criminal, civil, and church law violations, allowing all aspects of an offense to be addressed in one process. Unlike retributive justice prevalent in the traditional legal system, restorative justice seeks to make things right while focusing on healing for the victim-survivor and offender and accountability by the church representatives.

[Priesthood and pharmacy in France after the French Revolution]. / Le clergé et la pharmacie en France après la Révolution française.

Contrary to Tournier's assertion (thesis of 1938), the law of germinal (the seventh month of the eleventh year of the French Republican Calendar) had not been respected by the regular/secular priesthood because it was so ambiguous that they could seize the opportunity to carry on practising the art of medicine or manufacturing and selling drugs. In fact there were three reasons for the lack of steadiness of authorities: the practice of charity, financial concerns and the rise of the science which incited to illegal practice of pharmacy although professionals protested against. On the other hand, the priesthood officials tardily took the decision of forbidding the practice of medicine, surgery and pharmacy until 1936 when it was anew forbidden after a meeting of French cardinals and bishops. In 1941, with the agreement of all concerned persons the problem came to its end.

Clergy counselors and confidentiality: a case for scrutiny.

As religious organizations contribute increasingly to community mental health, counseling by clergy acquires greater significance. As a result, clergy confront from time to time ethics challenges resulting from the need to balance a commitment to clients and an obligation to follow the requirements of religious doctrine. The recent New York case of Lightman v. Flaum highlights an example of this dilemma. A woman who asked two rabbis (Flaum and Weinberger) for help in her marriage complained that they had violated the confidentiality she expected of them. The rabbis requested summary judgment based on religious grounds, and the trial court rejected their request. The state's highest court concurred with an appeal court's reversal of the trial court. We discuss the arguments raised in this case about the extent to which clergy may owe a duty of confidentiality to those who consult them for psychological help, and we also consider the religion-based arguments that would fashion an exception to confidentiality in this unique context.