Clericalism was described as "a contributory cause of clerical child sexual abuse [ and therefore a danger to children]" in a submission yesterday to the Commission of Investigation into Clerical Sexual Abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.
It was also said to be "a cause of the administrative abuse that has too often followed clerical child sexual abuse" and was "a continuing obstacle to child protection in the church" as well as being "an obstacle to healing and reconciliation".
The submission is by the lay Catholics group Voice of the Faithful - Ireland. It was founded in 2002 by Boston lay Catholics concerned at how the clerical child sex abuse issue was being handled by their then archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law. He later resigned.
In its statement to the Dublin commission the group points out that "the 2005 Ferns report concluded that 'frequently it is the respect in which the [ clerical] abuser is held which affords the opportunity of perpetrating the crime and protects him from subsequent detection'."
It continued that "the respect in which Catholic clergy are held is greatly influenced by the phenomenon known as clericalism. The protection of children within the church cannot therefore be fully achieved without an understanding of the role played by clericalism in clerical child sexual abuse".
It said "the term 'clericalism' is used in this document to denote a presumption by too many Catholic clergy that they are entitled to the unquestioning compliance of lay members of their church. It denotes also a tendency on the part of some laity to grant that entitlement to their clergy".
Nowhere does Catholic teaching explicitly endorse this entitlement, it notes.
"In fact Catholic teaching emphasises the equal dignity of all members of the church. This is why Voice of the Faithful considers it vitally important to distinguish clericalism from Catholicism."
Calling on bishops and clergy generally to emphasise the difference between clericalism and Catholicism, it said it was convinced the "key to this differentiation is the abandonment by clergy of unaccountable status on administrative matters in the church, and the establishment of structures of accountability to laity to achieve this".