Clericalism and sexual abuses in the Latin American Catholic Church: the case of Argentina, Chile and Peru.

ANA LOURDES SUAREZ; VERONIQUE LECAROS

Evento Virtual

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Association for Sociology of Religion; 2021

The presentation explores the relationship between clericalism and child abuse. We analyze the still low ?publicly known? cases of clergy abuse in Latin America, particularly in three countries: Chile, Argentina and Peru. We rely on one Church report, media reports, and some interviews we have conducted on victims. We argue that although clericalism might be considered a Church universal feature, it also mirrors Latin American local culture, the dynamics and particularities of the Catholic Church in the Region, and unintended effects of a regional contextual theological emphasis