John Geoghan Scandal

The ongoing sexual abuse scandal involving US Roman Catholic priests and other church officials continues to shock the world and has led to a more in-depth research on this phenomenon. The sexual abuse by priest has led to the arrest; prosecution of former priest and it has caused international embarrassment. Since the first publicized case of sexual abuse by a priest in 1985, society began to question the true intentions of an institution that was formed for spiritual guidance. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the impact of this abuse and the response to the abuse by the Church, the media, and the public.

Overview of the sexual abuse by Priests

The allegation of sexual abuse by a priest was something that was not openly

The allegations against “serial predator John Geoghan in the Boston Archdiocese” were widely disseminated, and the Globe published “more than 1,000 articles” from 2002 to 2004 regarding this matter (Terry, 2015). John Geoghan was a priest for more than thirty years and during the course of his career he abuse more than 130 boys. The Catholic Church did very little to prevent former priest John Geoghan from victimizing other children. The scandal of Geoghan spread internationally and shed light to the problem of sexual abuse by priest (Terry,

tried to hide the truth about these felonious incidents. According to the article by Dale et al, they uncovered that many archdiocese were aware of sexual misconduct by priests under their supervision however they chose to not address this. Pope John Paul II blamed institutions that were “beyond the church’s control,” and he blamed the “media, society (particularly American society), and the mysterious presence of evil in the world” (Dale, 64).

In 1998, the Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls said, “One would have to ask if the real culprit is not a society that is irresponsibly permissive, hyper inflated with sexuality”; he even made priests out to be scapegoats, saying that American society created the circumstances that “induce” even people with a “solid moral foundation to commit grave moral acts” (Dale, 64). More recently, Pope Francis announced in his research that 8,000 members of the Roman Catholic clergy are pedophiles (Barrett, et al, 2014). The pope called the sexual abuse scandal a “leprosy” within the Church, and mentioned “priests, bishops and cardinals” as perpetrators of sexual abuse