Through the
“Lens” of the Organizational Culture Perspective:
A
Descriptive Study of
American Catholic Bishops’ Understanding
of Clergy
Sexual
Molestation
and Abuse of
Children and Adolescents
by
Barbara
Susan Balboni
ABSTRACT
OF DISSERTATION
Submitted
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
Doctor
of Philosophy in Law, Policy, and Society in the Graduate
School
of
Arts and Sciences of Northeastern University, September
1998.
This study
analyzes data from twenty Roman Catholic bishops and six priest-perpetrators.
During in-depth semi-structured interviews the bishops discussed their
understanding of the phenomenon of clergy abuse of children and adolescents that
occurred during the 1970s to mid-1980s. Using the organizational culture
perspective as the “lens” through which to view the data, I identified two basic
underlying assumptions held by the bishops and priests in their “preconscious.”
The two dominant assumptions are: (1) bishops had a commitment to preserve the
institution of the Catholic Church and (2) both bishops and priests had a
commitment to the permanency of a vocation to the priesthood. These assumptions
helped clarify the explanations the bishops gave for the way they and their
fellow bishops acted during the early days of the clergy abuse
crisis.
Also
included are a literature review of the Church as a social institution,
interviews with six priest-perpetrators, and explanations of how bishops and
priests perceived the priests’ behavior. For example, clergy abuse was seen as a
moral failing that called for a moral solution—prayer and penance. Most often
the parents of the victims did not want the priest removed from the parish; they
just wanted him away the children and adolescents. The bishops’ responses
paralleled the way families responded to similar situations at
home.
This study
concluded that in the late 1960s the bishops ignored a psychological study
(Kennedy 1971) commissioned by them, the National Council of Catholic Bishops
(NCCB), which found that the priests had deep emotional and developmental
problems. The study indicated that priests were 7% developed, 18% developing,
66% underdeveloped, and 8% maldeveloped. Kennedy advised the bishops to address
two questions on priorities: Did the Church want to assist their priests to
achieve greater personal maturity and effectiveness as priests, or Did the
Church want the priests to adjust their expectation to help meet the goals of
the institution? It seems that the bishops did not discuss these questions nor
did they implement the other suggestions. This study suggests that the NCCB
return to the issues raised in the report, especially the two main questions on
institutional priorities with which all social institutions must deal.