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Summer 2003

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On Nov. 5 in the Connelly Center Cinema, this fall’s Crisis in the Church forum continued. This was the third forum of the series and was titled, “Psycho Sexual Dimensions of the Crisis.” The event began with moderator Dr. Beth Hassel, P.B.V.M., who introduced the panel of speakers. The panel included Dr. Pamela Blewitt, professor of psychology, who talked from the victims’ perspective, Dr. Robert Thornton, O.S.A., a ’77 alumnus and counselor at Kelly Counseling and Consulting, who talked from the victimizers’ perspective, and Dr. Linda Copel, R.N., associate professor of nursing, who talked from the family of the victims’ perspective.

Dr. Blewitt was the first to speak. She presented the victim’s point of view in the case of child sexual abuse. “How development is changed or shifted into a different trajectory,” said Blewitt, is the main goal in studying how children are affected by abuse. A child’s early development is important and can be thrown off track when a traumatic experience occurs. The perpetrator often uses desensitization, a progressive increase in physical or verbal contact, in order to become closer to his victim. In this case, priests and clergy use their role as a trusted and moral figure to overcome societal barriers and groom the child to accept the inappropriate behavior. In addition, the victimizers tend to look for certain kinds of children that will easily fall prey to their persuasion or threats. These children are often vulnerable, unhappy, needy, come from an unstable family, or lack adult supervision. Because the majority of child abuse cases are never even reported, however, it is hard to tell when or if the victimization actually happened. Physical evidence is often present with younger children, but older children do not always tell the truth. Blewitt presented a study of a chronic abuser whose videotapes of his victims were found during an investigation. Even with the evidence of the tapes, most of the abused children still did not admit to the abuse during interviews. “Abused children show some variety of maladaptive symptoms,” continued Blewitt, “but there are a lot of factors that affect which symptoms children will display.” These include age, severity of abuse, how chronically they were abused, and how close they were to the perpetrator. One factor that does not affect the symptoms is the victim’s gender. In order to understand and help the victim, one has to realize the different developing systems that could be affected. “Keep in mind that we are dealing with children and adolescents that are rapidly developing,” Blewitt pointed out. A victim’s self concept, cognitive development, relationships and social interactions are all in danger of being affected by abuse.

Following Blewitt, Dr. Thornton spoke about the victimizers’ behavior. He pointed out that pedophiles and ephebophiles may or may not be invasive, are often married and have their own children, are often moralistic or puritanical, come from all socioeconomic backgrounds, are mostly male, and usually engage in elaborate schemes to gain access to children. For clergy and priests, there is a ready-made situation for the perpetrator to develop trust with the child and they often use spirituality as a form of seduction and acceptance to the behavior. This makes overcoming the abuse even more difficult for the victim. Thornton also talked about the use of pornography by the abuser and its affect on their awareness of the problem. “Pornography is a major cultural problem that we deal with,” he said. An abuser can be desensitized to the problem by frequent exposure to pornographic images. Other factors that contribute to a victimizer’s behavior are difficulties in developing attachment, a significant emotional loss in childhood, and most importantly the experience of similar childhood trauma. “Often perpetrators of sexual abuse of minors were abused themselves,” stated Thornton. Although there is no known cure for pedophilia and ephebophilia, therapists use different forms of treatment including group therapy, individual therapy, psychopharmacology and cognitive behavioral therapy. “It can help retrain their thinking and their behaviors to manage their behaviors,” said Thornton. He considers cognitive behavioral therapy the most promising treatment. Because there is little research surrounding the perpetrators of child abuse, there are many different perspectives. Some researchers believe that child molestation is more prevalent among Catholic clergy because of sexual repression, while others believe that the percent of abusers among clergy members is the same or even less than when compared to other occupations. Thornton did state, however, that studies show that the incidence of pathological narcissism is high among the list of disorders for priests. This is relevant because several studies prove that many child abusers suffer from pathological narcissism or antisocial personality disorder. Either way, there are still problems with human subject research that can only be solved by increased funding and efforts.

Dr. Copel was the final speaker and she presented the idea that child abuse does not only affect the individual, but that it affects the whole family. Families of victims can react very differently to child abuse. Some people are brought together by a traumatic incident, while others deny the occurrence of the victimization. This can cause conflict and negativity within the family and can lead to problems in family therapy and individual treatment. Family members that can listen and support the victim have an easier time overcoming the trauma together, but families that divide often blame the victim, challenge his or her sexual preference, and even avoid the person emotionally and physically. Often a family’s negative response worsens the situation, which Copel calls “crazy-making.” This can send the victim even more into depression, withdrawal, anxiety, acute stress, irritability, alcoholism, addiction or even suicide. Physiological symptoms that the victim may also experience include cardiac, gastrointestinal and neurological problems. When involving a crisis in the Church, many families will either strengthen their faith in order to overcome the experience or will disregard the religion and give up on spirituality. Regardless, family therapy is always key in overcoming the problem because child abuse affects ever member. Copel then presented the case study of a family of five who became divided after one child was molested. However, they slowly reunited by talking and listening together. “The only way out of the pain of trauma is to go through it,” said Copel. Families need to reconnect and recognize that child abuse is a difficult experience to overcome, but that it needs to be dealt with. In this way, stated Copel, “therapy does allow people to take it to a different level and explore the pieces."