ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the journal Studies in Gender and Sexuality, as part of its special double issue devoted to the clergy sexual abuse scandal. It examines the root causes of the Catholic sexual abuse crisis are embedded in an intricate matrix of power relationships, traditions, and teachings that, in their aggregate, created a socio-religious context that produced emotionally and sexually immature priests. The victim/survivor stories hinge on trust and betrayal, honesty and mendacity, memory and fantasy, trauma and recovery, blame and forgiveness. Leslie Lothstein, clinical director of a treatment program for impaired clergy, has made the case that 'the data overwhelmingly imply that the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, may represent a public health crisis'. In Lothstein's view, while homosexuality may be a risk factor for some priests abusing adolescent males, it is not the cause of that abuse.
