Sexual Abuse and Catholicism: How Priests and Nuns Become Perpetrators Book

In this comprehensive book, Hidalgo reveals the carefully documented statistic that 4% of Catholic priests (1 in 25)have been implicated in sexual abuse of children or teenagers. This is a level almost 4 times greater than that of the general public.she uses her experience as a social worker and mental health professional to analyze the reasons why sexual abuse is more common among clergy members of the Roman Catholic Church and proposes different solutions on how to change this dynamic. Much of the book was clearly aimed at mental health professionals and is a careful analysis of the psychological reasons why people abuse as well as steps that can be taken to heal victims and minimize their trauma. The book is very technical at times, but contains good information that Catholics and other concerned people should be aware of. The author avoids simple explanations and excuses, siding neither with the liberals who want to reform the church and end celibacy nor the conservatives who want to restrict access of gays in the priesthood. Rather, she makes a case for the fact that sexual shame in the Catholic Church leads to an environment that damages the clergy members and leads to sexual exploitation.

Also included is the authors experience of being sexually abused by a nun- a testimony that you usually don't get in the Catholic sex scandals at me. She discusses incidents were nuns sexually exploited young women in addition to the more well-known cases of priests exploiting boys