Miriam Pinkesz  |  October 9, 2020

Category: Legal News

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Boy praying during church sexual abuse
Sexual assault and abuse occurring within the Catholic Church have continued to make headlines across North America for decades. Victims of sexual abuse- men, women, young, and old- have been coming forward with accounts of horrific abuse, and after years of silence, Canadian courts are giving survivors an opportunity to be heard.

About 35 years ago, the sexual abuse of minors emerged as a chief social and ecclesial issue in Canada. It can be said that since the 1984 Badgley Report, Sexual Offenses Against Children in Canada, which sheds light on the severity of the harm involving child and adolescent sexual assault, raised the nation’s public awareness about child sexual abuse.

In June 1992, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released a report on child sexual abuse occurring in the Church.

The report highlighted three objectives for the Church to move toward a future without sexual abuse, namely:

  • To deal effectively, justly and compassionately with cases of sexual abuse;
  • To work towards eradicating the blight of sexual abuse within the ranks of the clergy; and
  • To contribute to the eventual elimination of this plague in society as a whole by educating and sensitizing the Catholic population.

Expert Dr. John Bradford Explains Church Sexual Abuse

One of the experts involved in the child sexual abuse report, forensic psychiatrist John Bradford, spoke with Top Class Actions about Catholic Church sexual abuse, his pivotal role in the Church’s healing process and his advice to prevent future sexual abuse in the Church.

Dr Bradford talking about Church sexual assault

Dr. Bradford, an Order of Canada and Queen’s Jubilee Medal recipient, is an Emeritus Professor at University of Ottawa and a Full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry  & Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. He is a Founder of Forensic Psychiatry granted by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He was also the Chair of the Examination Board for the subspecialty of Forensic Psychiatry under the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Dr. John Bradford is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and received the Isaac Ray Award for outstanding accomplishments in Psychiatry and Jurisprudence (American Psychiatric Association), to name a few.

Surges in Church Sexual Assault Class Action Lawsuits

There has been a recent explosion of sexual assault class action lawsuits across Canada against various Catholic Archdiocese and churches. The most recent class actions have been launched in Nova Scotia, where a class action lawsuit over priest sexual abuse was certified, Newfoundland, Quebec and B.C.

As these cases continue to make headlines, many wonder why so many victims of sexual assault are coming forward decades later. Dr. John Bradford explains: “The climate and environment today makes it easier to come forward as victims, without social embarrassment… The social environment is more accepting of victims to come forward.”

Indeed, victims often carry a lot of guilt, which according to the celebrated psychiatrist is a major barrier to coming forward.

Another reason Dr. Bradford offers to explain the surge in sexual assault priest class action lwasuits is the presence of reports in the media of predator priests. “There is now more awareness among the general population,” he notes.

The forensic psychiatrist and sexual deviancy expert explains that there has been a significant shift in how the Catholic Church in Canada deals with sexual assault claims.

“I served on the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops regarding child sexual abuse,” says Dr. Bradford referring to his experience with the Catholic Church in the 1990s. “This was a big change. Before this council there was a protective attitude toward priests. Before the council, sexual deviant priests were treated as alcoholics by the Church.”

Although the primary issue was sexual deviation, explains Dr. John Bradford, priests would only seek treatment for alcoholism. This allowed for priests to return to their  parishes and continue their sexually abusive behaviour, which remained untreated.

“The Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops’ child sexual abuse commission changed things so that deviant priests had more barriers to returning to their parishes. The commission highlighted that the safety of the parish was the most important.”

According to Dr. John Bradford, this did not happen everywhere, and names the U.S. as an example.

Catholic Church Abuse is “Different”

Sexual assault that occurs in the Church appears to differ from other cases of abuse and pedophilia. Granted, a major caveat to this is that, “there is no empirical study demonstrating this, and it’s a generalization, but it seems that when priests are exposed in a sexual abuse case, it’s due to their involvement with young males.”

According to the sexual deviancy expert, as opposed to people who are pedophilic, where the victims tend to be female, priest abuse cases tend to involve young males. This, Dr. Bradford notes, raises a question: “Is there some psychological drive that brings certain men to the Catholic Church due to guilt regarding homosexuality, and unfortunately they act out on young males?”

Although he qualifies this question as “speculative rather than scientific,” it may explain the high numbers of male sexual abuse.

“We also have to remember that priests are not really celibate. We need to accept the fact that priests have a sexual drive and sexual interests.” By acknowledging the sexuality of priests, says Dr. John Bradford, we can deal with sexual deviancy better, “because we are not pushing the issue under the rug.”

Dr. John Bradford Breaks Down PTSD and Catholic Church Sexual Abuse

Dr. John Bradford, a renowned PTSD expert explains that victims of sexual abuse may be broadly categorized into three groups:

  • One third of victims have severe symptoms;
  • One third of victims have moderate symptoms; and
  • One third of victims have mild symptoms.

“Some people are more resilient,” he notes, adding that various factors come into play, such as how intrusive the assault was or the age of the victim at the time of the trauma, for example.

Dr. Bradford, who is admirably open about his own experience with work-related PTSD, explains that his above description is very generalized, and that PTSD is very complex and relies on several factors.

For example, a study on sexual revictimization and PTSD examined adult survivors of child sexual abuse and found that the time period between the childhood trauma and the assessment of PTSD-like symptoms makes it difficult to be certain that PTSD, indeed, resulted from a childhood trauma and not subsequent traumas, such as, adult/adolescent revictimization. The study found that child sexual abuse survivors who experienced repeated victimization were significantly more likely to have a lifetime diagnosis of PTSD.

Dr. John Bradford explained that a key issue to be aware of in the recent Church sexual abuse class action lwasuits is to avoid victimization and re-victimization of adult survivors.

Recent Catholic Church Class Action Lawsuits Are a Game Changer

When asked how important the recent Canadian class action lawsuits against Catholic Church sexual abuse is for correcting systemic issues in the Church, Dr. Bradford boy praying in churchanswered that it’s critical.

“This exposure, families coming forward, victims coming forward, is critical to get the problem dealt with.”

Dr. John Bradford offers some suggestions to the Catholic Church, based on his experience, namely, that in the Church’s screening process for priests, there should be a greater emphasis on who is applying, what their motivations are and there should potentially be screening for deviant sexuality and pedophilia.

“At the moment, the screening process is probably not very scientific.” Dr. Bradford explains that most screening involves a criminal background check. However, he notes, criminal background checks are “useless” to screen out people who are pedophilic. Such individuals would not attempt to join the Church if they had a criminal record. “A criminal record check provides a false sense of security,” he says.

The deviant sexuality expert counsels that it may be helpful if the Church favours accepting older priests. “From the point of view of sexual deviation, this makes sense. After the age of 20, deviant sexual behaviour becomes more manifest,” explains Dr. Bradford. “So if we delay the age of joining the priesthood to the mid 20’s or later, the chances are that if there is sexual deviation, there will be behavioural consequences already, and it’ll show up in a [criminal] record.”

Catholic Church Sexual Assault Commission Investigation

Although there is a chance that a commission would be established to investigate sexual assault in the Church, Dr. John Bradford explains that commissions are not always the answer.

However, commissions can be helpful, he notes, referencing Supreme Court Justice Iacobucci’s Toronto police commission, Police Encounters With People in Crisis.

According to Dr. Bradford, it is essential that independent commissions remain “independent” and are not politicized.

Although the forensic psychiatry expert believes that the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops commission was positive, “a new commission may be beneficial to the general psyche of the population that something has been done.”

Have you, or someone you know, been a Catholic Church sexual abuse victim? Do you think the Church has done enough to repair past or present harms? Do you have questions for Dr. John Bradford? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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