Communitas (IM)perfecta: How the Internal Organization of the Catholic Church Heightens Obstacles to Remedies for Clerical Sexual Assault Survivors and Recommendations to Remove These Obstacles

Communitas (IM)perfecta: How the Internal Organization of the Catholic Church Heightens Obstacles to Remedies for Clerical Sexual Assault Survivors and Recommendations to Remove These Obstacles

The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.Nelson Mandela Abstract Although the Catholic Church has been referred to as a “communitas perfecta” (the perfect community), more than 30,000 incidents of child clerical sexual abuse have been reported by survivors in the United States. The rampant sexual abuse of minors…