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An Archive of Jesuit Accountability – Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus has long been regarded for the intellectual prowess of its priests and educators. In the marketplace of ideas Jesuits have made significant contributions to both the physical and social sciences. But there is evidence that this is starting to slip. Recent cases in California and elsewhere have begged the question, “What has happened to the Jesuit Order? Can they still wave their intellectual wands and make sexual abuse a defensible act?”

We stumbled upon this bit of Jesuit produced research (link to Santa Clara Univ. article) into why Jesuits abuse. Written by Gerdenio Sonny Manuel, S. J., a member of the California Province Sensitive Incidents Team, entitled Living Chastity: Psychosexual Well Being in Jesuit Life An Essay for Studies in Jesuit Spirituality.

The thrust of his intellectual question, with regards to being a Jesuit is “How in the world could you do that to yourself?” Basically sex abuse by Jesuits boils down to lack of self-understanding, loneliness and stress. From the article:

“In addition to coping with the stress related to our lifestyle and ministry, there are the usual varieties of ordinary life events that can burden us: personal illness or misfortune, interpersonal conflicts, family struggles, aging, the death of loved ones. From time to time, friends, family, or the Society will inevitably disappoint and even hurt us. And so, independently or cumulatively we can be stressed by our lifestyle, ministry, and ordinary life traumas and find ourselves in pain and searching for solace. During these times of distress, we need to be especially vigilant that we do not use sex as a way of altering mood or as an escape. Along with other forms of gratification or socially isolating activities like extended television viewing, engaging in sexual fantasies, various forms of internet pornography, and sexually acting out can be ways of coping with sadness by medicating our pain and suffering.”

“Rather, we need to be aware of what we would consider healthy self-solacing activities and other constructive coping strategies that relieve our suffering

We can find ourselves responding defensively to even our own community discussions about chastity and to recent efforts to monitor ourselves through explicit sex abuse policies and safety certification programs like Praesidium and other organizations founded to protect those in our care from abuse and to preserve trust.

When sexual feelings emerge, he needs to acknowledge them to himself and carefully discern their meaning and intent, so that he doesn’t hurt others, himself, or the Society by unreflective sexual acting- out.

Finally, such perceived deprivation, deepening helplessness, and unacknowledged turmoil make one prone to sexual misconduct, looking for identity and healing through sexual contact.

Rather, we need to be aware of what we would consider healthy self-solacing activities and other constructive coping strategies that relieve our suffering. An important first step would be to acknowledge our pain and share it with friends, members of our community, spiritual director, therapist, and God. We need to allow ourselves the opportunity to actively grieve personal loss, disappointment, and failure and to find solace in activities that are deeply renewing and recreative. We should identify positive interactions that can counteract negative interactions in our lives, activities that provide us with the rest, relaxation, and renewal we need, and people with whom we want to share these activities. Proactively, there should be periods of decompression in every day and times set aside for prayer, exercise, rest, and recreation at regular intervals in our lives. Over the long haul, we need accessible communities of support that we can turn to in times of personal crisis and need.

JoltinJoe wrote:

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