Enforcing the Canon Law:Normative Pluralism and Clerical Abuse in the Catholic Church

Abstract

This article investigates why clerical abuse of Catholic priests persists in the Church using the sociological and
normative pluralist perspectives. It analyzes how the various informal normative standards of the Church—
doctrinal, ethical, or biblical—affect the enforcement of Canon Law on clerical abuse by bishops, particularly on
how they decide on specific cases on the diocesan level. It also investigates how the cultural values and norms
influence the bishop’s decision whether to sanction erring priests or not or to prosecute abuse cases in civil
courts. Unlike the state, the Church has no professional judicial system with a set of legal codes, a hierarchy of ecclesial judges and prosecutors, as well as a comprehensive penal law to assess cases of clerical abuse
objectively following the principle of “rule of law.” Thus, the informal norms of mercy and compassion, eternal
character of the priesthood, camaraderie in the ministry among priests, and other cultural values and norms in the
local culture, tend to dominate over the strict penal provisions of the Canon Law against clerical abuse in the bishops’ investigation and decision. Faced with multiple normative criteria in judging abuse cases and given the
wide ecclesial powers given to them by the Church, local bishops then acquire more discretionary powers to keep
investigations of clerical abuse internally in the spirit of evangelical mercy and compassion in order to preserve
Church’s unity and fellowship of the clergy. This strategy, however, slows down the filing of clerical abuses cases in civil courts and faces the risk of being seen by victims and Church members as a cover-up and grave injustice.