The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis and the Legal Responses

The sexual abuse of children and teens by rogue priests in the U.S. Catholic Church is a heinous crime, and those who pray for a religious community as its ministers, priests and rabbis should never tolerate those who prey on that community. The legal disputes of recent years have produced many scandalous headlines and fuelled public discussion about the sexual abuse crisis within the clergy, a crisis that has cost the U.S. Catholic Church over $3 billion. In The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis and the Legal Responses, two eminent experts, James O'Reilly and Margaret Chalmers, draw on the lessons of recent years to discern the interplay between civil damages law and global church-based canon law. In some countries civil and canon law, although autonomous systems of law, both form part of the church's legal duties. In the United States, freedom of religion issues have complicated how the state adjudicates both cases of abuse and who can be held responsible for clerical oversight. This book examines questions of civil and criminal liability, issues of respondeat superior and oversight, issues with statutes of limitations and dealing with allegations that occurred decades ago, and how the Church's internal judicial processes interact or clash with the civil pursuit of these cases.

Preface ; PART I: CONTEXT & BACKGROUND ; Chapter 1 Introduction to a Complex Problem ; Chapter 2 Understanding the Patterns of Clergy Abuse Litigation ; PART II: CIVIL LITIGATION ; Chapter 3 Civil Litigation Against Catholic Dioceses, Parishes and Priests ; Chapter 4 Participants in the Clergy Abuse Case ; PART III: HANDLING ABUSE CLAIMS ; Chapter 5 Delays & Limitations in Clergy Abuse Claims ; PART IV: OTHER RELATED ISSUES ; Chapter 6 Effects of Criminal Charges & Plea Agreements ; Chapter 7 Church Insurance & Abuse Claims ; Chapter 8 Constitutional Issues ; Chapter 9 Bankruptcy Issues ; Chapter 10 Mandated Abuse Reporting Issues ; Chapter 11 Evidence Privileges & Clergy Abuse Issues ; Chapter 12 Repressed Memory Inducement Cases ; Chapter 13 Fraud and Nondisclosure in the Assignment of Clergy ; Chapter 14 Defenses & Claims of Immunity ; Chapter 15 Damages Issues ; Chapter 16 Fiscal Impacts of Abuse Cases on the U.S. Catholic Church ; Chapter 17 Impact of Abuse Cases on External Relations of the Catholic Church ; Chapter 18 Responses Vary Inside & Outside the United States ; Chapter 19 The Church's Internal Big Picture - Governance and Law ; Chapter 20 How Episcopal Culture Contributed to Administrative Failure ; Chapter 21 The Development of the Problem: 1950 to 2002 ; Chapter 22 The Perfect Storm in Canon Law: What Went Wrong ; Chapter 23 2002 and Beyond ; Chapter 24 The Particular Issues of Religious Communities ; Chapter 25 The Investigation and Pretrial Canonical Process ; Chapter 26 The Accuser and The Canonical Process ; Chapter 27 Canonical Penal Trials and Outcomes ; Chapter 28 Limitations and Weaknesses in the Canonical Penal System ; Chapter 29 Clergy Abuse Issues in Non-Roman Catholic Denominations ; Chronology ; Bibliography ; Index