Incidents of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, over the past fifty years, is significant and disturbing
Program Titles
- Help overcoming depression and anxiety, and recovering from abuse or trauma, or addictive behaviors
- Works closely with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
- Zero-tolerance policy embodied in the Essential Norms adopted
- Why did Church leaders respond to the problem of sexual abuse so poorly for so many years?
- Overview of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests
- Responses to Allegations of Abuse
- Manifestation of the Problem in the Archdiocese
- Response of the Vatican to the Problem
- The Presence in the Priesthood of Persons Who Have Sexually Abused Minors
Nanette de Fuentes, Ph.D. (Psychologist), Professor of Family Medicine, and consultant to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Works closely with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
De Fuentes, Ph.D., is not a Catholic, a “survivor of clergy sexual abuse.” beginning when she was 18, De Fuentes had a four-year sexual relationship with her nondenominational Christian pastor who was 40 years her senior. She didn’t understand how she got so attached and addicted to the pastor. “I was able to turn down my boyfriend sexually… but not him [the pastor],” “I was a good girl!”
While she felt tremendous shame and guilt about the relationship, De Fuentes said she didn’t think of it as abuse until she was 30 and doing her doctoral work.
A key principle she said she learned is that it’s always the responsibility of the person in power to maintain the boundaries.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy stresses the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. It is based on the belief that thoughts, rather than people or events, cause our negative feelings. The therapist assists the patient in identifying, testing the reality of, and correcting dysfunctional beliefs underlying his or her thinking. The therapist then helps the client modify those thoughts and the behaviors that flow from them.
CBT is a structured collaboration between therapist and client and often calls for homework assignments. CBT has been clinically proven to help clients in a relatively short amount of time with a wide range of disorders, including depression and anxiety.
Transpersonal therapy emphasizes the transcendent or spiritual aspects of a client’s development. A transpersonal therapist may help the client cultivate a greater sense of connectedness with others, with nature, and with a higher spirit.
Nanette de Fuentes, Ph.D. – Hear Our Cries: Victim-Survivors of
Clergy Sexual Misconduct
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