Episode 252: Dr. Jane Adolph and Dr. Robert Fastiggi on Clerical Sexual Misconduct (January 18, 2023)

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos-Reyes discuss the ongoing tragedy of clerical sexual abuse. They examine its contributing factors and its consequences. Our special and welcome guests are Jane F. Adolphe and Robert Fastiggi. They are co-editors of Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis. Adolphe is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, in Naples, Florida, and former expert of the Holy See, Secretariat of State, Section for Relations with States. Dr. Fastiggi is Chair of Dogmatic Theology and Christology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. He is a corresponding member of the Pontifical Marian Academy International. Among the questions we will ask are the following.

Profs. Adolphe and Fastiggi, Jane and Robert if we may, could you please tell us how you came to be co-editors of this important book on clerical sexual abuse?

2. What kind of reception has the book received, especially at Ave Maria University and Sacred Heart Seminary?

3. How do you assess the chief contributing factors leading to the tragedy of clerical sexual abuse?

4. To what extent are those factors still at work?

5. Could you outline for us the range of consequences of the tragedy of abuse?

6. How successful have the Church’s efforts been in preventing further abuse?

7. To what extent has the media addressed the Church’s work in combatting abuse?

8. To what extent do recent projects of synodality address clerical sexual abuse?

9. How can Catholics, in light of what the Church has suffered, effectively challenge the hypersexualizing of Western culture?

10. Where is your own ongoing scholarship taking you these days?