The Burden of Betrayal: Non-Offending Priests and the Clergy Child Sexual Abuse Scandals

A PREVIOUSLY UNRECOGNISED CATEGORY of victims is identified in this new study into the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandals: the Church’s own non-offending priests. A detailed analysis of the perspectives of a select group of representative priests reveals that the scandals and the Church’s often unsatisfactory handling of them have left significant psychological scars which the Church and even many clergy themselves have yet to recognise and address. Revd Dr Barry O'Sullivan, who is both a serving priest and a qualified counsellor, finds in his series of carefully controlled interviews with fellow priests that his beleaguered brotherhood should be classed among the secondary victims of this ongoing crisis for the Church. Originally undertaken as a doctoral study for the University of Manchester, this work casts new light on the far-reaching effects which this type of crisis can potentially inflict not just on Catholic priests but also on professionals in all walks of life which have been assailed by child sex abuse scandals.