Author: Massimo Faggioli, School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin - Wikipedia

Abstract: »The abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in the USA has become the symbol of a polycrisis, where issues of sexual violence intersect with the concepts of legal, political, economic, and social power; with the discussions on gender and equality; with the national sin of colonization, slavery and racial segregation. In the modern history of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, in its different phases from the 1980s to the 2020s, there has been an evolution in the narratives and understanding of the phenomenon. One of the most consequential developments is the expansion from an early typology of sexual abuse in the Church as crimes committed by “pedophile clergy” to a more comprehensive notion of abuse (sexual, spiritual, of authority and power) committed by and against a wider typology of Church members. This crisis of sexuality emerged in the context of social, cultural, and political-institutional shifts that are particularly evident in the USA. This more comprehensive notion of abuse is part of a deeper crisis of sexuality taking place within a more pervasive and endemic crisis of relationships and sociality in which not even the Catholic Church is spared.« (Source: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion)

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of the United States | Catholic Church: Catholic Church in the United States | Sex and the law: Sexual violence / Catholic Church sex abuse cases in the United States