The abuse crisis and the church
The hardest chapter of modern church history
The Boston Globe begins publishing its investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston on January 6, 2002. What follows is one of the most sustained and damaging institutional crises in the history of the Christian church.
The abuse itself is not new — it has been happening for decades, probably longer. What is new is the systematic documentation of the abuse and, more damning, the systematic protection of abusers by institutional leaders who moved perpetrators rather than removing them, who prioritized the institution's reputation over the safety of children.
The crisis is not confined to Roman Catholicism. Similar patterns have been documented in Protestant denominations, in evangelical organizations, in Orthodox communities, in institutions ranging from seminaries to mission agencies to summer camps.
The harm done to the survivors is incalculable. The harm done to the church's witness is severe. The disillusionment that drives people away from institutional Christianity in the twenty-first century is fed, significantly, by the revelation that the institution entrusted with the formation of conscience and the care of souls has used its authority to protect predators.
This must be named plainly and without qualification. It is not a scandal in the sense of an embarrassing revelation about peripheral behavior. It is a central failure — the violation of the most vulnerable, by those entrusted with their care, in the name of the God who said it would be better for a millstone to be tied around the neck of anyone who causes a child to stumble.
The millstone text is in Matthew 18. The church that used it to threaten children into silence forgot that Jesus said it about their abusers.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
— Jesus, Matthew 18:6
“but whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.”
Jesus said the millstone about the abusers, not the abused.
The church that forgot this, that used its spiritual authority to silence victims rather than protect them, that prioritized institutional reputation over the safety of children — this church stands under a specific, direct condemnation from its own Lord.
This is not a failure that can be processed quickly or resolved with an apology. It requires sustained, costly, structural repentance — changes to how power is held, how accountability works, how victims are received, how predators are removed.
The survivors are still here. Their testimony is still being heard. The work of repair is not finished.
If you are a survivor: you were wronged. You were not believed when you should have been. The church failed you. That failure was real and the God who sees it is not neutral about it.
If you are part of the church: this is yours to own, to repent, to repair. No one else can do it.