Church Sexual Assault – Information

Priest Sexual Abuse encompasses a range of immoral and unacceptable actions often perpetrated on children and teens by predatory clergy or other church members involving sexual abuse of varying amounts. The sexual assault can be a one-off, non-consensual scroll barencounter or it can involve numerous assaults inside an ongoing interaction. For example, an ongoing “trusting” interaction with a young child created by the predatory behavior of a clergy associate, blanketed with the trust and respect provided to a member of the clergy, leading to non-consensual sexual abuse acts of molestation.

Within most claimed Priest or Clergy Sexual Abuse situations, the short-coming by the Clergy member’s superior to completely, adequately and immediately disclose the crime to police and other authorities, or its further failure to investigate, address and resolve entirely with the occurrence amplifies the effects on the assault survivor, the community and possibly others. Recent Church Sexual Abuse cases reported in the press uncover these failures, that includes “pass-the-trash” scenarios where the perpetrator commonly a clergy in the Catholic Church, is quietly moved from one parish to another only to continue his predatory, criminal behavior on an unaware parish community.

Priest and Clergy Sexual Abuse & Justice
Not a week passes without a media announcement reporting about sexual assault and molestation of children by predator priests, or the effects of the abuse on the survivors and their families. If you are a survivor of sexual assault from a priest or other clergy member, these reports are likely to serve as an echo chamber, reverberating the horror, embarrassment, guilt and various unwanted feelings staining your well-being. Encouraged by the societal movement and other channels that encourage them to disclose the abuse they experienced, survivors of assault are more frequently employing the legal system to compensate them for the lifetime harm and injury they have suffered.

If you are a victim of abuse perpetrated by a priest, the impact of the abuse on your life and core belief system can be incalculable. Regardless, holding the responsible person and institutions accountable for their crimes and failures can offer a measure of justice and recompense to abuse victims. Frequently, victims can assert their legal rights through confidential mediation therein avoiding the need for litigation. But, if litigation is required, a motion may be filed where the survivor can remain anonymous.

Abusive Behavior
All abusers, to varying amounts, use predatory methods that are generally known as grooming, tracking a potential abuse victim. Below is a list of grooming actions exhibited by predators who are in a position of authority in relation to the subordinate young child.

Grooming
Grooming is a major piece of a predator’s ploy. In a church environment, the priest is held as God’s representative. Within this setting, the predator often works closely with small amounts of children, identifying each child’s needs, weaknesses and situations. Once a target is located, these vulnerabilities – such as tumultuous family setting, isolation, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, attention-seeking – may be systematically leveraged in the following ways:

Trust
An assaulter will first try to gain the child’s trust. This strategy is most difficult to discern as church communities are often tight-knit and personal relation with clergy is commonplace. Here, the assaulter can feign genuine concern in the child’s wellbeing and groeth – both emotional and religious.

Reliance
As a predator establishes a trusting relationship with the potential victim and oftentimes their family, the child will begin to rely more and more on the predator for whatever need it is that the predator is exploiting and fulfilling. The child may spend more time with the predator, feeling more and more comfortable with the relationship and relying on its stability and security. In addition to attention and affection, the potential target might receive presents from the priest, including valuable, intangible gifts like blessings and special recognition.
Isolation
As the grooming progresses, the predator might try to isolate the possible victim. This could result in individual counseling sessions, meals or other methods of one-on-one isolated encounters.
Sexualization
The predator might start to de-sensitize the child from reacting negatively to touching, caressing and other actions that lead to sexual interaction. This might start with crossing the physical-touch barrier, or verbally, with inappropriate messages to gauge the victim’s response to the progression. This will continue until the relationship gets to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
Once the sexual relationship is created, the predator will try to maintain control of the child and the continuing interaction. The predator will likely want to manipulate the victim by continuing to make the victim feel special and worthy. The predator will keep exploiting the victim by whatever means needed to maintain the inappropriate physical relationship.

Impact on Clergy Abuse Survivors

The impact of childhood assault on the victim can be overwhelming and life-altering. abused by clergy suffer from lifelong effects of the assault including depression, disturbed sleeping, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse and eating patterns, and problems establishing and maintaining vibrant relationships. Individualized treatment and support groups can help victims overcome these effects.

Legally, a victim of Priest Sexual Abuse can gain financial compensation from the predator and, more commonly, from the religious organization for its failure to protect the victim from the assault, as well as failures or deficiencies in its process of reviewing and resolving to reports of assault. If you are a survivor of Priest or Clergy Sexual Abuse and would like to confidentially discuss your situation and your legal options, we are ready to speak with you.