In March 2020, an international group of scholars set out to meet in Rome, Italy, for a “theological laboratory” called “Doing Theology in the Face of Sexual Abuse.” Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic changed life as we know it, and the gathering pivoted to online collaboration. Daniel Fleming and James Keenan led a “virtual roundtable” through Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church and collaborated with Hans Zollner at the Centre for Child Protection (since renamed the Institute of Anthropology [IADC] at Gregorian University) to continue to raise theological and ethical questions. Although the pandemic shifted plans for the gathering, it may have given way to one of the most comprehensive, diverse, and essential volumes on the theological endeavor in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Many volumes of this sort claim to be diverse, yet this volume truly lives into diversity. There is a diversity of global contexts and cultures, which is a difficult feat to achieve. Yet there is a deeper diversity here that is the larger contribution. The clergy sexual abuse crisis is a crisis on many levels. There is the harm to victim-survivors, harm of the cover-up, harm of the hierarchical church’s ongoing efforts to halt statute of limitations expansion and legislation, ecclesiological harm, theological harm, and the complete obliviation of credibility of the church. Up to this point, many books and edited volumes have focused on one or two aspects of the harm, as well they should. This research has brought the field to a point where a diverse collection like Doing Theology and Theological Ethics in the Face of the Abuse Crisis can be a significant contribution. It is not trying to be everything to everyone, but rather, doing many things very well.
There is naturally an unevenness in the contributions, with some being solid contributions to theological discourse and others being less relevant. However, I see this as a testament to the diversity of this volume, rather than an indictment of some of the less strong chapters. What stands out to me, an academic and practitioner in the United States, will naturally be different than people in other contexts and professions. The depth and breadth of this volume is unparalleled, especially in regard to the global dimension of the abuse crisis.
The editors framed the volume as asking the following questions in the face of the clergy sexual abuse crisis: “To what extent have we been blind to these issues? Why have our efforts in theology and theological ethics been so slow to wrestle with this crisis? How are theology and theological ethics implicated in the crisis? And how might the disciplines be constructive in responding?” (2). Although I would challenge the ableist language in this framing, these questions provide a helpful guide for the twenty-six contributors.
In particular, it is worth calling attention to the constructive contributions of the volume. Stephanie Ann Puen’s “Design Thinking in the Catholic Church’s Organizational Structures: Responding to the Wicked Problem of the Sex Abuse Crisis” stands out for its integration of design thinking and ethics. Puen’s chapter is creative, forward-thinking, and teachable. This chapter would be an excellent addition to undergraduate classrooms, especially in a business context. Likewise, Marcus Mescher seamlessly combines pastoral needs and theological insights in “Clergy Sexual Abuse as Moral Injury: Confronting a Wounded and Wounding Church.” Mescher proposes moral injury as a framework, a rich resource for a trauma-informed theological response. Kate Jackson-Meyer’s call for a clergy abuse truth and reconciliation may sound like a far-off dream for some, yet Jackson-Meyer convincingly makes her case, arguing, “Whatever one’s position is, it seems undeniable that it is necessary for the episcopacy to listen to survivors and to create pathways for reconciliation and healing should some desire to explore those options” (231). Puen, Mescher, and Jackson-Meyer’s contributions illustrate the interdisciplinary, creative, and theologically grounded constructive contributions of this volume.
Every library, church, and theology department should have this book in its resource collection. Chapters are accessible and quick to read, making them easily adaptable to classroom use as well as faith formation and reading groups. Furthermore, every theologian and minister should have this book in their personal library, consulting it as we individually and collectively discern how to be a church in the face of the abuse crisis.
