Pedophilia in the Catholic Church during the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis

One of the main internal social problems with which the institution of the Catholic Church struggles over the last two pontificates is the occurrence of pedophilia in its ranks. The article analyzes the difference in the approach to the problem over the last two pontificates, and the studied scale of the phenomenon and the territorial scope allow undoubtedly giving this practice a global character. Based on the analyzes of pontificates, the picture of the problem of pedophilia in the Church clearly emerges as a legacy after many years of policy of covering this type of sexual abuse by church leaders. The disclosure of cases of sexual abuse committed by ministers in individual countries was the direct cause of the crisis of the local universal Churches during the pontificate of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

The aim of the article is to determine the type of activities undertaken by the Catholic Church towards clergymen committing sexual offenses, and more specifically: pedophilia. The research problem is a question: what actions does the Catholic Church take against pedophilia? In order to realize a research project, it was first determined how the offense is defined in the doctrine of church criminal law. Then, there was made an analysis of the activities undertaken by the hierarchs of the Catholic Church. On its basis, a typology of the forms of the Church’s influence at various levels was reconstructed in the field of both preventive and sanctioning actions against the clergy. In the article there was adopted a time restriction covering only 2018. It can be described as a breakthrough, first of all due to the verdict that was made in Poznań (MS, 2018), the accusations that appeared at the end of the year against the deceased chaplain of Solidarity, Fr. Henryk Jankowski and initiatives taken by both citizens and politicians, such as the first anti-clerical happening of Baby Shoes Remember in Poland or the creation of a pedophile map. In the cinemas, a movie entitled “Kler” showed up. It moved the topic of pedophilia in the Church. Results: the Catholic Church in Poland, apart from symbolic activities, i.e. oral and written declarations, assurances, and prayers, undertakes also substantial actions, such as personal changes, cooperation with the state or the meetings of hierarchs centered around pedophilia.

In every society, there is socially constructed dominant, highly valued, and eagerly gratified model of sexuality of men and women which could be named gender grata. Gender non grata means all that stays in opposition to the main stream, widely legitimized sexual behaviour. The extremum of gender non grata seems to change. It depends on complex social dynamics rooted in religion, science, various groups of interests, and engagement of moral crusaders. Some time ago, this extremum was represented by masturbation; currently, pathological epicenter is occupied by pedophilia. This phenomenon can be placed and analyzed within various frames of reference. The one used in this article is labeled as moral panic.

Polish news portals towards Marcin Gutowski’s documentary Franciszkańska 3 – content analysis from a personalist perspective

The subject of the analysis was the person of Karol Wojtyła, presented in the five most opinion-making news portals in the context of the documentary Franciszkańska 3 in the first eight days after its broadcast on TVN24. The adopted research perspective is the phenomenon of personalization. The paper aims to analyse how the five leading news portals presented the person of Karol Wojtyła in the context of the documentary Franciszkańska 3. In the research, both quantitative and qualitative, the authors verify the hypothesis that in the documentary and the analysed texts, the reactions to the crime of paedophilia among the clergy in the diocese of Krakow are interpreted in the context of Karol Wojtyła’s personal responsibility and not of the institution. The research results confirm the above hypothesis.