ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of these issues, beginning with that which has, perhaps, caused the most damage to the image of Roman Catholicism, the sexual abuse of children by clergy and members of religious orders. The Catholic Church likes to present itself as a paragon of unity, as a community of believers gathered around their bishop, and a college of bishops gathered around the pope. However, the Catholic Church worldwide has been in the forefront of those who have campaigned against legalising abortion. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission has produced a number of agreed documents, the first phase producing a final report to which the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops responded in 1988, and Rome's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1991. A commission had been established to decide whether modern techniques of contraception could be morally justified.
