Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church

In this episode, Karna Lozoya speaks with Stephen White, Executive Director of The Catholic Project at Catholic University, one of the creators of this podcast, and Ed Condon, editor at the Catholic News Agency, about the newly-released report from the Vatican about the institutional knowledge regarding Theodore McCarrick.

An issue this podcast keeps returning to is bishops' accountability. Are the reforms of Vos estis lux mundi being applied in the US Church? This episode features Cardinal Timothy Dolan, reporters Harriet Ryan of the L.A. Times and Christopher Altieri of the UK Catholic Herlald, and canon lawyer Tom Doyle.

The story of clergy sex abuse is a hard one to tell. Catholics face the difficult task of incorporating what has happened into their understanding of the Church that they love. This episode features J.D. Flynn, Tom Doyle, Mar Munoz-Visoso, and James Matthew Wilson.

Since 2002, being a priest has lost much of its public respect and stature. How have priests experienced the ongoing crisis? And how has seminary formation changed in view of the revelations about sexual abuse? This episode includes Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Fr. Jude de Angelo, Fr. Carter Griffin, Fr. Paul Scalia and Christina Lynch, psychologist.

The vast majority of Catholics are lay people; living out their mission as Christians in the world. How did the laity respond to the abuse crisis? How can the laity help the Church to move forward? This episode features Jonathan Reyes, Deborah Savage, Dan Cellucci, and Francesco Cesareo.

In this episode, Karna walks listeners through the process that a clergy abuse survivor would go through today, talking with Susan Mulheron, Canonical Chancellor for the Archdiocese of St. Paul- Minneapolis, Timothy O’Malley, investigator for the Archdiocese of St. Paul- Minneapolis, and Sue Bernie, former District Attorney in New Orleans.

Are kids safe in the Church today? How confident can parents be? This episode explores the changes of the 2002 Dallas Charter and what can still be improved, with Courtney Chase of the Archdiocese of Washington, Eileen Dombo from the National Catholic School of Social Service, Deacon Bernie Nojadera of the USCCB, and Francesco Cesareo of the National Review Board, among others.

A short bit of extra content about the survivors’ movement: the history of LinkUp and SNAP along with the mission and current work of SNAP, with Brian Clites of Case Western Reserve University and Tim Lennon, Chairman of the Board of SNAP (Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests).

When the crisis of 2018 hit, many men and women were already dealing with trauma from their own experiences of abuse. James Grein and Theresa Pitt Green share their stories, and we hear from researcher Bob Orsi from Northwestern University and social work professor Melissa Grady from Catholic University.

How did the Catholic Church become a place that abusers could hide in? Were men who were prone to abuse drawn to the priesthood? In 2002, the Catholic bishops commissioned a report on clergy sexual abuse from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Karna talks with Margaret Smith, who worked on that report, as well as Msgr. Steven Rossetti, who helped to draft the Dallas Charter, Fr. Paul Scalia, George Weigel, and others.