Accountability, Healing, and Trust

Name: Accountability, Healing, and Trust
Author: Edited by Kimberly Hope Belcher and David A. Clairmont

Interdisciplinary Reflections for Ministry in the Midst of the Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis

Edited by Kimberly Hope Belcher and David A. Clairmont

eISBN: 9780814688991, E8899

Details: 232 pgs,
Publication Date: 01/15/2025

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By carefully listening to the words and wisdom of survivors, this volume focuses on ways forward in the work of creating an atmosphere of accountability, healing, and trust in today’s church.

In March of 2022, practitioners of psychology, law, and theology, gathered at the University of Notre Dame for a major conference to explore practical strategies to increase accountability, promote healing, and rebuild trust in the life of the Catholic Church in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The essays in this volume share the fruits of those days spent reflecting on recent research on these challenging issues. The result is a hopeful resource in service to survivors and to those who minister with them through listening, giving voice, and bearing witness to the wounded body of Christ.

The challenges of addressing the range of problems caused by the abuse crisis are great, affecting the work of ministry in profound ways. From the training of future ministers—lay and ordained—to the exercise of the church’s various ministries in parishes, education and direct service, the abuse crisis calls out for a response to the questions posed by abuse survivors and those who accompany and hope to serve them. Organized around three themes—accountability, healing, and trust—the contributors to this volume probe the deepest understanding of the church’s mission and name the most significant divisions in the response to the sexual abuse crisis. By carefully listening to the words and wisdom of survivors, this volume focuses on ways forward and treats clergy, laypeople, scholars, and ministers as partners in the work of creating an atmosphere of accountability, healing, and trust in the post-abuse-revelation church.

Contributors Include:

- Melanie Susan Barrett
- Kimberly Hope Belcher
- Jennifer Beste
- Julia Canonico
- Peter Capretto
- David A. Clairmont
- Tristan Cooley
- Anselma Dolcich-Ashley
- Sarah Gallagher
- Kevin Grove, CSC
- Gerard J. McGlone, SJ
- Marcus Mescher
- Bruce Morrill, SJ
- Stacey Noem
- Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC
- Hilary Jerome Scarsella
- Kenneth W. Schmidt
- Eric T. Styles
- Patrick J. Wall
- J.J. Wright

Kimberly Hope Belcher is associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, in liturgical studies. She uses sacramental and liturgical theology and ritual theory to study Christian worship. Her current research explores the potential of ritual for healing trauma and social crisis in pluralistic societies. Her related publications include “Remembering the Dead, Reconciling the Living: George Floyd and All Souls’ Day” ( Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2024), “Ritual Techniques in Affliction Rites and the Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical Liturgy of Lund, 2016” ( Yearbook for Ritual and Liturgical Studies, 2022), and the guest edited issue “Sacramental and Liturgical Theology of Healing and Crisis Rites” of Religions (2022).

David A. Clairmont teaches in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on comparative religious ethics, particularly the moral thought of Roman Catholicism and Theravada Buddhism, professional ethics (particularly in business contexts), and the connection between ethics and spirituality.

eISBN: 9780814688991, E8899

Details: 232 pgs,
Publication Date: 01/15/2025

Reviews

“We are now more than two decades out from the ground-breaking and world-changing reporting by the “Spotlight” team at the Boston Globe that brought the crisis of clergy sexual abuse and its insidious coverup by church leaders to light. While much has been done during these decades to address the harm caused, still much more is needed. This volume brings together a wide range of expertise and insight to help in this effort, especially as it relates to ministry in the church today. I recommend this book to everyone engaged in pastoral ministry in the Catholic church today, especially those entrusted with leadership of dioceses, religious congregations, and parishes. It should also be required reading in seminaries and graduate schools of theology and ministry!”

Daniel P. Horan, Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theology, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana

“If you wonder what the clergy sexual abuse crisis is all about, let this book explain it to you. Although you can never fully understand sexual abuse unless you have lived it, the loss is so profound that the very essence, identity, spirituality, and relational ability is forever changed in the victim and will never be the same as it was before the abuse took place. Within these pages is an insightful overview of this crisis with an emphasis on the effect it has had on the people of God—parish, faith, religious communities, the priesthood and the entire faithful. Hopefully, these pages will give you a deeper look than you have had and you will be changed, for the better, knowing what you can do to help transform our Church into a haven of justice and peace.”

Paula Kaempffer, Coordinator for Restorative Practices and Survivor Support, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

"As there can be no authentic celebration of resurrection hope that bypasses the crucifixion, the Catholic church, in all of its expressions, cannot be a source of safety and healing by bypassing the grim reality of sexual abuse within the church. Accountability, Healing, and Trust does engender hope, doing so through respect for the needs of survivors, honest confrontation with the sinfulness and failure that blight many aspects of the ecclesial community, and a commitment to the conversion that the church’s prayer and worship engender. This is a challenging book, but a necessary one."

Richard Lennan, Professor of Systematic Theology, Boston College—Clough School of Theology and Ministry

"This collection of essays makes common cause with numerous recent initiatives stemming from Catholic universities and theologians across the globe, all making constructive response to the challenges posed by the phenomena of clergy sexual abuse. Increasingly, Catholic universities are where the church is doing its thinking on this issue. This volume will benefit ground force actors responsible for safeguarding in dioceses, schools, parishes, and seminaries, and it will contribute helpful resources to church leadership, not only to bishops but to priests, principles, administrators, and teachers in all settings, even as the work of protection and healing belong to all in the church. Accountability, Healing, and Trust joins a number of recent volumes that, together, show us how to bridge the work of church and academy and, still together, disrupt patterns of vulnerability and promote the flourishing of all."

John N. Sheveland, Professor of Religious Studies, Gonzaga University, editor of Theology in a Post-Traumatic Church

"At a time when some in the church advocate for leaving discussions of abuse behind, this book offers a vital reminder: our work to address the systemic roots of abuse and institutional betrayal is far from over. The thought-provoking essays in this collection challenge us to work toward a future where accountability, justice, and authentic accompaniment permeate the life of the church at every level. Most importantly, this volume encourages an approach that amplifies the voices, stories, and wisdom of abuse survivors—reminding us that their insights are indispensable for the healing and transformation of the church."

Sara Larson, Executive Director, Awake