Societal Discourses on the Sexual Abuse of Children and Their Influence on the Catholic Church

IAPT – 01/2019 typoscript [AK] – 05.03.2019 – Seite 20 – 2. SL The politics of meaning: societal discourses on the sexual abuse of children and their influence on the Catholic Church Karlijn Demasure This chapter on child sexual abuse contributes to an understanding of the shift from a focus on perpetrators that denies the voice of the victims, even holding the victims to be sexual delinquents responsible for their abuse, to a “victims first” approach. The Catholic Church has been heavily influenced by the major discourses in society that give power to psychiatrists, therapists and social workers. However, with regard to clerical sexual abuse in the Church, two distinct discourses can be identified. In the first, sin is considered a cause for abuse, reducing it to a mat- ter of the will. The second discourse restricts child sexual abuse to the North American context, suggesting that moral decay has contaminated the clergy in that region. Introduction Prof. Dr. Karlijn Demasure is the former Executive Direc- tor of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical In recent decades, sexual abuse has been widely dis- Gregorian University in Rome. cussed in the Catholic Church as well as in society at Before, she acted as the Dean of the Faculty of Philoso- large. Also, dominant discourses in society were phy (2011–2014), and of Human Sciences (2010–2014) at previously more concerned about the perpetrators Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. She there held than the victims. But recently, a major paradigm the Sisters-of-Our-Lady-of-the-Cross Research Chair in Christian Family Studies (2008–2014). shift has taken place: victims have come forward testifying how the abuse has ruined their lives and are asking for justice. This has resulted in a “victims first” approach. This chapter contributes to an understanding of and Derrida have convincingly shown that language the shift from a focus on perpetrators, one that de- creates the framework in which psychological and nies the voice of the victims, even holding the vic- social life take form. Considering someone who has tims to be sexual delinquents responsible for their sexually abused a minor a psychopath, gives power abuse, to a “victims first” approach. Although the to legislative authorities; the decision to put some- focus is on the Catholic Church as such, the major one in a psychiatric institution—and not in pris- discourses in society play an important role in its on—is based on the testimony of a psychiatrist. thinking and actions. It is worthwhile to take a clos- Thus, language not only creates meaning, every dis- er look at the interaction course also leads to practical consequences. It fol- This chapter adopts a constructionist approach, lows that discourses can be constructed to serve cer- which accepts that society is both an objective and a tain purposes (Gergen 1999, 42). For example, a subjective reality. It holds that meaning is construct- discourse can be constructed that focuses on false ed, leading to a taken-for-granted reality. Foucault accusations so as not to have to pay compensations, Auli Vähäkangas, Sivert Angel and Kirstine Helboe 20 Johansen, eds. 2019. Reforming Practical Theology: The Politics of Body and Space. IAPT.CS 1: 20–28 DOI: 10.25785/iapt.cs.v1i0.49 ORCID-ID: 0000-0002-3176-8237 IAPT – 01/2019 typoscript [AK] – 05.03.2019 – Seite 21 – 2. SL The politics of meaning: societal discourses on the sexual abuse of children which leads to a situation of no longer believing the talking about and understanding a specific reality. victims and setting the perpetrators free. For Foucault, however, discourse is not limited to Within the limits of this chapter, I will look at language; it includes practice (Hall 2001, 72). Dis- history from the turn of the twentieth century to to- course is related to power, operating by rules of ex- day. An analysis of some of the major discourses clusion. Those in power decide what can be dis- concerning the sexual abuse of minors will reveal cussed, where and how one can speak, and “who both the meaning that is conveyed as well as the gains, who is hurt, who is silenced, what traditions purpose and consequences of such discourses. It are sustained, which are undermined” (Gergen makes clear that the status of the victim and the of- 1999, 62). In discourse analysis, the primary con- fender is not fixed but changes over time. To be cern is not if the perspectives under being examined aware of the historical evolution of meaning is to are true, but rather, “what interest [do] they serve, become aware of the fact that the categories we use what relations of power [do] they uphold?” (Miller for the persons involved often create much suffering 1990, 118). (Gergen 1999, 48). We need to ask the questions: The social construction of reality does not de- Who gains? Who is hurt? Who is silenced? pend on one discourse only, but on a miscellany of This chapter is rooted in the study of a large simultaneous discourses, each one viewing the number of scientific writings that describe or re- “world” from a certain perspective. Prevailing or search, or else are expressions of, the particular pe- dominating discourses can be opposed by count- riods that are under analysis. The first group of writ- er-discourses. When the voiceless and oppressed ings can be identified as historical, describing how start to speak for themselves, they create a count- sexual abuse was being examined during a specific er-discourse, which is always political, because only period; the second group includes empirical re- those who have been oppressed can form a count- search based on interviews or the analysis of sourc- er-discourse, and by doing so they resist the op- es, such as journals and magazines, while the third pressing power (Moussa and Scapp 1996, 92–93). group looks at the construction and the meaning of the phenomenon of abuse. Telling the truth or inventing fantasies? Definitions Europeans began giving greater attention to CSA in the late nineteenth century, primarily in Great Brit- Currently, the World Health Organization defines ain and France. In France, the discovery resulted Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) as “the involvement of a from research in the field of forensic medicine. Ma- child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully jor works published by Ambroise Tardieu (1867), comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, Paul Bernard (1886) and Paul Brouardel (1909) pre- or for which the child is not developmentally pre- sented their research on indecent assault cases, pared or else that violates the laws or social taboos of which they considered a form of physical violence. society. Children can be sexually abused by both Tardieu asserted that three-quarters of those adults and other children who are—by virtue of their charged with rape were accused of raping children age or stage of development—in a position of respon- (Olafson, Corwin and Summit 1993, 8). The French sibility, trust or power over the victim” (WHO 2006). forensic tradition documented tens of thousands of The Oxford Dictionary defines politics as “the cases of sexual abuse and rape. principles relating to or inherent in a sphere or ac- It is speculated that, while studying at the Paris tivity, especially when concerned with power and Morgue, Sigmund Freud may have been present status” (Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., s. v. when Brouardel conducted autopsies on victims of “Politics”). We will use the term “political” in this sexual abuse. However, when Freud published his broad sense, i. e. as it is connected with power rela- Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie (Three Essays tionships and status. Within this context, the chap- on the History of Sexuality) in 1905, he stated that it ter will examine the major discourses on the sexual is rather exceptional for children to be the only sex- abuse of minors. ual object. In his opinion, they only fill this role A discourse (Burr 1995, 64) expresses meaning when the individual is “a faint-hearted and impo- through language, which in turn influences identity tent individual who makes use of such substitutes, as well as social and political praxis. It is a way of or when an impulsive urgent desire cannot at the 21 IAPT – 01/2019 typoscript [AK] – 05.03.2019 – Seite 22 – 2. SL Karlijn Demasure time secure the proper object” (Freud 1910, 40) He The label “sexual psychopath” originated in continued: “Thus we find with gruesome frequency Krafft-Ebing’s work Psychopathia Sexualis, in the sexual abuse of children by teachers and servants chapter “Pathological Sexuality in its Legal As- merely because they have the best opportunities for pects”, published in 1884, which greatly influenced it” (Freud 1910, 41). So, Freud distinguishes between the discourse on perpetrators. Discussing the sexual individual causes (a faint-hearted, impotent indi- abuse of children, Krafft-Ebing differentiated be- vidual) and situational causes (no proper object). tween psychopathological and non-pathological Freud initially defended the proposition that cases. The non-pathological cases were the result of traumas present in adult hysterical women were the “moral weakness or psychical impotence”, while the result of true (real) sexual abuse in their childhood psychopathological were “acquired weaknesses” (Freud 1998), but he definitively retracted his seduc- and caused, for example, by alcoholism or a degen- tion theory in Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie erative predisposition. Krafft-Ebing further labeled (Schusdek 1996). From that time onwards, he main- such moral weakness, which he considered a vice, a tained his conviction that the seduction scenes re- “perversity” and called the pathology, the disease, a counted by his patients had never taken place and “perversion” (Angelides 2005, 274).

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