By Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

In 1992, the Archdiocese of Chicago confronted its own troubles with clerical sexual abuse. That confrontation led to what has become one of the most forthright policies dealing with the painful—for victims, certainly, but also for the church—issue of sexual abuse. Cardinal Bernardin wrote the following column, one of several addressing the situation to the larger church. It appeared in The New World on March 6, 1992. It is reprinted here to provide some background and historical context for the archdiocese’s policy on clerical sexual abuse which is published in a special section in this edition of The Catholic New World.

Last week, I offered you an interim report on the archdiocese’s response to the issue of sexual misconduct with minors by priests. I felt it was important for the members of our Catholic community to know that the commission is pursuing its mandates with great care and responsibility.

This week, I want to share with you some personal reflections. While the recent focus has been on priests, sexual abuse—as we know so well—is a serious problem for all segments of society. These reflections are shaped by our faith tradition and are intensified by my discussions with families, priests, commission members, and others who are professionally or personally involved with this issue.



Defending Bodily Dignity

Our Catholic tradition has always held that the human body is sacred, a glorious if fragile reflection of the beauty and love of God. The human being is not a spirit imprisoned in a body but an embodied person. What one does to the body one does to the person. Hence our tradition has always proclaimed the dignity and the inviolability of the human body. We are horrified when the human body is violated, mutilated and destroyed by those who assert power over it.

Only slightly less evil than murder is the sexual abuse of the human body. Those who sexually exploit the body of another debase its most intimate dignity and inflict on it, both in the actual act and through the aftereffects, the worst of horrors.

Nevertheless, the sexual defilement of the bodies of others has been part of the human condition from the very beginning—men have abused the bodies of women, masters have abused the bodies of slaves, conquerors have abused the bodies of the conquered, adults have abused the bodies of children, those with power have abused the bodies of the weak.

Nor has this perversion ceased in our modern, so-called civilized era. Valid sociological studies show that two out of every five American women have been targets of attempted rape, one out of three has actually been raped, one out of five has been the victim of incestuous attacks, and one out of 20 has been raped by her father or stepfather. The data on the molestation of boys is less extensive, but experts in the field say the estimate that one out of 10 boys is violated while growing up is not too high. Such chilling statistics suggest that we are not yet out of the jungle.

Maybe those of us who are church leaders have not been zealous enough in preaching on this matter in season and out of season. But do I have to say that this sexual abuse of women and children must stop? Must I insist that to abuse sexually the body of a child or a young person is a grievous sin? Isn't the evil of such actions patently obvious to any responsible person?



Facing the Evil and Pain

If, as a society, we tend to ignore the seriousness and implications of sexual abuse, particularly the sexual abuse of children and young people, perhaps it is because it is so unthinkably evil. We may know about child pornography and child prostitution, but we do not want to think much about such crimes because they are so repulsive. We do not want to have to imagine what such victimization must be like from the point of view of the victim.

To make matters worse, attempts are made at times to justify the victimization by blaming the victim for what happened. As a result, many victims do not report what has happened to them. Victimized children, for example, frequently do not tell their parents what has been done to them because they are afraid they will be blamed and their parents will punish them.

Victims of sexual abuse will never recover their lost innocence: The terror of that experience will haunt them the rest of their lives. With help, a victim may be able to lead a relatively normal and happy life, but the scars of the horror will remain always with them. I have personally spoken with adults who are quite well adjusted but who have never been able to erase from their memory the abuse they experienced as children or teenagers. With reason, those who abuse others—particularly children—have been called “slayers of the soul.”



Decisive Action

The victimizers of children and young people were often victims themselves when they were children and may not always be fully responsible for what they do. Nonetheless, their crimes are devastating and we must protect children from them just as we must protect women from rapists who may not be fully responsible for their behavior. To insure effective, appropriate action to defend women and children from sexual abuse, we must be willing to admit the magnitude of the problem and the seriousness of the abuse, and we must be willing to try to understand its devastation from the viewpoint of the victim and the victim’s family. It is a societal problem which demands the concern and response of everyone.

In regard to priests, I fear that in the past, because of legitimate concerns over the protection of priests from false charges, or of the archdiocese from financial liability, or of the Catholic community from scandal, an impression may have been created that we are not sensitive enough to victims or their families. At times, we may have also given the impression that we are blaming the victims and their families. To the extent that this may have actually happened, even though not intended, I am very sorry and promise that it will not happen again. I ask the clergy and laity of the archdiocese to reflect on the seriousness of the betrayal and abuse of the innocent which happens when a child or young person is abused by anyone. I ask all of us to try to understand these terrifying experiences from the point of view of the victim and the victim’s family.

It is true, as I stated last week, that the overwhelming majority of priests do not engage in such behavior. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of men who do act in this way are not priests—indeed most are married men. Nonetheless, one such abuse by a priest is one too many. I reaffirm my commitment to do all in my power to see that in the future the archdiocese will be free of this evil. With God’s grace and our own determined efforts, I am confident this will be the case.