Citation

Edwards SC, Humphrey KI. J. Moral Theol. 2020; 9(1): 51-74.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Mount St. Mary's University)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The crisis of clerics sexually abusing minors with impunity puts the tragic factuality of that theological doctrine in stark relief. The global Roman Catholic Church is in its third decade of public conversation about clerical sex abuse and the cover-up of that abuse, yet we remain caught in the same discursive loops, making some important process-oriented interventions but failing to practically reimagine our fundamental theology. We do not yet center those victimized--who, as Gustavo Gutierrez reminds us, are Christ crucified today--in the lived story of our faith. In this paper, we echo and advance the call of many of our colleagues to treat the scandal of clerical sex abuse as a theological crisis point, and we do so by attending to the conceptual and material haunting of our ecclesial body by the broken, abused, tortured, and resilient persons so deeply harmed by those who claim to work with God's hands.

Language: en