What Makes Them Who they Are

Written by a Roman Catholic priest, clinical social work counselor, and assistant professor in the Facundo Valdez School of Social Work at New Mexico Highlands University, this work makes sense of the participants' final interview thoughts in six areas: the serious nature of sexual abuse, Church leadership, offender healing and returning home, the need to strengthen initial socialization processes in the formation and education programs of religious orders and dioceses, courage to deepen the conversation, and the call to mercy. These areas all point to a need, among others, for the Church to recognize the organizational factors and variables that coalesced with individual, group, and environmental socialization factors, which contributed to, or at least did not prevent, the sexual abuse of minors by some in its clergy.This book presents ways forward that will provide a more precise understanding of clergy child sexual abuse and identifies topics for future research to improve this understanding further. This is vital to support victims of clergy sexual abuse, the faithful and faith-filled members of the institutional Church, all religious order members and diocesan clergy, and the Church's bishops and religious order superiors. They need to understand more deeply how fitting into and making sense of the people and the institutions around them are inexorably linked in complex relationships throughout the lifetimes of the clergy.