Before Dallas: The U.s. Bishops' Response to Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children

by Nicholas P. Cafardi

The clergy sex abuse scandal and its ongoing fallout have created the greatest crisis in the history of the American Catholic Church. Yet for well over a thousand years, the Church has recognized the problem of clerical abuse of children and has maintained strict canonical punishments for perpetrators, including expulsion from the clerical state. So why did Church leaders favor therapeutic solutions over the provisions of canon law in dealing with decades of abuse? This groundbreaking analysis of the Church's response to the abuse crisis addresses that very question and engages in a vigorous assessment of the Church's failures in the light of its own canon law. The author, a civil and canon lawyer, summarizes the history of clerical sexual abuse, from the New Testament era to modern times. He describes the major cases that brought the problem to the forefront in the United States. He goes on to explain why most bishops decided to take the "therapeutic option" when dealing with abusive priests, rather than subjecting abusers to proper canonical punishments that might have brought the cases to light and resulted in greater sensitivity to the victims themselves. Finally, the author explains what the Church must learn from the abuse crisis. Insightfully written and thoroughly annotated, Before Dallas will become the accepted reference work on the Church's legal response to clerical sexual abuse, and an indispensable guide for preventing the tragedy from happening again. It will be essential reading for church historians, canonists, clergy, and all those interested in the future welfare of the Church and her faithful.

255 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2008

Reviews

[David Szatkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the PA and possible new investigation in IL, this book is excellent in looking at the much wider history of how sexual abuse cases were mishandled by wide sections of disciplines - law, canon law, law enforcement, medical disciplines (multiple), bishops, etc. It serves as an excellent introduction into the many pronged solution that is needed.

[Timothy Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cafardi's "Before Dallas" looks at the Catholic Sex abuse scandal from the inside. He explores the canonical, human, and moral failings that led to the well known (and well deserved) black eye that the Catholic Church in the United States received as a result of poor, negligent, and perhaps even criminal actions in the face of sexual abuse.

He also shows what the bishops _thought_ they were doing. He outlines the numerous attempts made by inidividual bishops and groups of bishops as early as the mid 1980s. If the whole body of bishops would have taken these initial fits and starts and channeled energy into them, we would not have ended up with the scandal of 2002. Unfortunately, without media scrutiny, the Bishops Conference moved on to other things.

This book is not a light read. It exposes the failures, inadvertence and corruption that led to the sex abuse crisis. It also shows the real attempts (if less than successful) that the bishops were making before the storm hit. Some Bishops come out as heroes, such as +Zipfel (Bismarck), who met with victims and pushed for years to have a formidable episcopal response to the scandal of sexual abuse.

Recommended for those who hate the Catholic Church, love the Catholic Church, want to know more about how the sex abuse crisis got so bad, and what changes still are needed.