ABSTRACT
Within the integration of Catholic institutions and the Catholic population into US culture, discover three interesting factors. First, a dialectic exists between the American character and Roman Catholicism in the US. Second, a continuing dialectic reflects the broad changes within Catholicism identified in a recent sociological study by Richard A. A third factor, which may affect the context of the Catholic Church sex scandal, has been identified as ‘the new anti-Catholicism’ by scholar Philip Jenkins. Clearly sexual abuse of youth and related cover-up exist in many different institutional settings and also within families. The Wanderer also argued that media coverage neglected a major part of the problem – the ‘sexualization’ of American culture. The pressure for the church to assume responsibility and to be accountable happened just as major US corporate scandals were exposed and government agencies and the stock market were facing similar scrutiny for negligence or misdeeds.
