The Unhealed Wound: The Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Roman Catholic Church (A Historical and Institutional Analysis)

This article aims to reveal why the crisis of child sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy within the Roman Catholic Church remains an unresolved structural problem, examining its historical and institutional dimensions. Throughout the Church's history, sexual abuse has long been framed as individual sin, moral decay, or infidelity to a vow of celibacy. This approach has delayed public justice for abusers and led to the systematic invisibility of victims. In particular, the principle of secrecy, hierarchical closure, and concerns about institutional reputation have caused abuse cases to remain within internal disciplinary mechanisms for many years. Documents uncovered by the Boston Globe's Spotlight team in the early 21st century demonstrated that abuse was not an isolated or local anomaly; rather, it was a global crisis linked to the Church's hierarchical structure, culture of secrecy, and institutional reflexes. These revelations profoundly questioned the moral authority and social legitimacy of the Catholic Church, bringing the discussion of sexual abuse back to the forefront in a holistic manner across theological, legal, and institutional levels. This study examines how the Church's historically adopted culture of secrecy, hierarchical closure, and prioritization of institutional reputation have systematically hindered the development of victim-centered crisis management. The research relies on document analysis techniques within a qualitative methodology. In this context, papal letters and speeches, canonical legal texts, council decisions, independent investigative reports, and academic literature have been critically examined. The study primarily analyzes the structural and institutional factors that perpetuate abuse and examines the Church hierarchy's responses to crises within a historical context. Furthermore, by examining the transformation in papal discourse from the twentieth century onwards, it reveals that abuse evolved from a theological framework of sin to a victim-centered and legal concept of crime. The study's findings demonstrate that the Roman Catholic Church's response to the sexual abuse crisis evolved over time from a discourse of moral condemnation and individual sin to a more institutional and legal framework. This transformation was largely shaped by external dynamics such as media pressure, victim organizing, and state investigations, rather than by an internal institutional accounting within the Church. However, institutional secrecy practices, differences in implementation among local churches, and reluctance towards civic oversight mechanisms remain major factors limiting the evolution of these reforms into a structural transformation and the restoration of social trust. In conclusion, the study reveals that the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is not a historically closed issue but an ongoing test of the Church's moral authority and institutional legitimacy. It emphasizes that genuine healing is only possible through the simultaneous implementation of transparency, accountability, and victim-centered church practices.