“Listening to Survivors as We Address Clergy Sexual Abuse” by Dr. Brian Clites

About This Event

On campuses across the country, students, staff, and faculty are continuing to grapple with revelations of clergy sexual abuse. How do we make sense of such a complex issue? What does it mean to address a national crisis as a local community? Many Catholics have called for increased accountability within the church, and we should also ask what responsibilities laypersons and even non-Catholics have in responding to clergy sexual abuse. In this lecture, Dr. Brian Clites argues that it is our shared responsibility — not just that of Pope Francis and the bishops — to seek out and uplift the voices of survivors. 

Dr. Brian Clites, Associate Director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, studies religious violence, power, and trauma within the contemporary United States. He is currently finishing his first book, Breaking the Silence, an ethnography of survivors of priestly sexual abuse.