Supervision of Clerical Behavior in the Hierarchy

Abstract

The Catholic Church prides itself on having a united community of ordained pastors under one priesthood of Christ. This chapter attempts to analyze broadly this social cohesion of the Catholic hierarchy as a clerical community. It investigates the supervision and coordination of the various components of the hierarchical community from the pope and the Roman Curia down to the lowest clerical network of the parish and draws some implications to the social control of clerical behavior against sexual abuse. It argues that the weak social bonding of various networks within the hierarchy, the concentration of ecclesiastical powers in the college of bishops as a clerical network, the absence of a professional judicial system in the Church, the lack of technological surveillance against clerical abuse, and the inadequate lay intermediary networks in the hierarchy primarily contribute to the social disorganization of the Catholic clergy as a community.