Essays explore the clergy abuse scandal

Sin Against the Innocents: Sexual Abuse by Priests and the Role of the Catholic Church (2004, Greenwood Press, $39.95), edited by Thomas Plante, professor of psychology at SCU, is a collection of essays by experts from many fields about the sex abuse scandal and how the Church plays a role. “Thomas Plante has edited the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the clergy sexual abuse scandal to date. The authors make an important contribution to our understanding of the causes, dynamics, and clerical systems that both spawned and sustained this sin against the innocents,” wrote Donald Cozzens, author of Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church. Note: The Bannan Center for Jesuit Education sponsored a conference in May on the topic; look for details in the August issue of Santa Clara Magazine.