Press Releases and Correspondence
CMA Publishes Special Issue of the Linacre Quarterly on the Sexual Abuse Crisis
November 16, 2011
Bala Cynwyd, PA -- The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) recently released the August 2011 issue of The Linacre Quarterly, which provides an in-depth analysis of the sexual abuse crisis from a medical and psychological perspective.
The abuse crisis continues to pose many problems for the Catholic Church, affecting both clergy and laity alike. The response by the United States bishops has been both praised and criticized. The recent publication of the second John Jay report, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950–2010, is a well-researched, in-depth analysis that has contributed to our understanding of the causes of sexual abuse by clergy from a criminologist’s perspective. What is lacking in the John Jay report is a medical or psychological analysis of these cases. Criminologists deal primarily with violent offenders and sexual predators, but this constituted only a tiny minority of the cases which have come to light. It is important to balance their perspective with a medical and psychological analysis which identifies the underlying issues which led to the abuse of minors and proposes strategies to avoid such issues in the future.
To provide this clinical perspective, editor-in-chief William V. Williams, M.D., and the editorial team of The Linacre Quarterly put together a special issue on the abuse crisis. The August 2011 issue of The Linacre Quarterly presents well-researched articles by leading psychiatrists, psychologists, and theologians which provide the medical and psychological perspective currently missing from the John Jay reports. This special issue is available online at http://lq.cathmed.metapress.com.
For additional information and comment, contact the editor of this special issue, Richard P. Fitzgibbons, M.D., at 610-397-0950 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Dr. Fitzgibbons is a psychiatrist with 35 years of experience of clinical work with Roman Catholic clergy and is a consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy at the Vatican.
The Linacre Quarterly is the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association and is the oldest continuously published journal in America dedicated to medical ethics. The Catholic Medical Association is dedicated to upholding the principles of the Catholic faith in the science and practice of medicine.
Founded in 1932, the Catholic Medical Association is the largest association of Catholic physicians in North America. For more information, go to http://www.cathmed.org.
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