Secrecy and Celibacy: The Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse

History Talk, the history podcast from Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective

Over the last two decades, the Catholic Church has been buffeted by a series of sexual abuse scandals. High-profile investigative reports have uncovered cases of sexual abuse of minors, both boys and girls, by Catholic priests, nuns, and members of religious orders. But while clerical abuse has only recently become a news item, it has a much longer history. This month, your History Talk podcast hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts on the Church — Professors Wietse de Boer and Alexander Stille. What makes the Catholic Church such a rife environment for sexual abuse? How do these scandals reflect the history of the Church? How has the Church responded to this problem, and how might the scandal shape its future? In this episode, we’ll seek to answer these questions and more in an exploration of the historical context and contemporary ramifications of the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church. An in-text version of this episode can be found at: https://origins.osu.edu/index.php/historytalk/secrecy-and-celibacy-catholic-church-and-sexual-abuse