There is a good book hiding inside the pages of
Clerical Sexual Abuse: How the Crisis Changed US Catholic
Church State Relations, but it’s not the one that the
author, Jo Renee Formicola, chose to write. The subtitle, “How the
Crisis Changed US Catholic Church-State Relations,” presents a
topic worth investigating.
As a result of a number of public prosecutors’ investigations into how individual bishops and dioceses handled allegations of child sexual abuse by priests, and in order to avoid their own prosecution on criminal charges, some American bishops handed partial control of their dioceses over to the public prosecutor. Ironically, these handovers occurred at the same time the American bishops were gearing up a full-scale campaign, Fortnight for Freedom, to protect religious freedom from government infringement. The irony there is thundering and examining it would have made a wonderful book.
https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/american_catholic_studies/v126/126.4.cafardi.html
As a result of a number of public prosecutors’ investigations into how individual bishops and dioceses handled allegations of child sexual abuse by priests, and in order to avoid their own prosecution on criminal charges, some American bishops handed partial control of their dioceses over to the public prosecutor. Ironically, these handovers occurred at the same time the American bishops were gearing up a full-scale campaign, Fortnight for Freedom, to protect religious freedom from government infringement. The irony there is thundering and examining it would have made a wonderful book.
https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/american_catholic_studies/v126/126.4.cafardi.html