Reproductive Abuse in the Context of Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper not only meets its primary to shed light on cases of reproductive abuse in the context of CSA but it also raises  a set of important ecclesial ethical as well as legal and doctrinal issues. The arguments and data are presented clearly; several key terms are helpfully defined and analysed. This is an original, solid and thorough research on a complex topic. The paper makes a substantial contribution to the study of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, there's nothing left for me than to thank you for your kind review. I appreciate your kindness for taking the time to read my (lengthy) paper and comment on it. I am glad you found it original, solid and substantial. With all my best wishes, DR

Reviewer 2 Report

See attached.

Make plain that the study presents evidence virtually exclusively from the Catholic Church in the USA. The website of the Australian Royal Commission into the Institutional Sexual Abuse of Children appears in the bibliography, but no reference is made in the text of the current article to the considerable documentation of this Royal Commission, or indeed to other similar public reports in English, e.g., from the Republic of Ireland.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Mr. Canning,

I have to thank you very much for your kind and really helpful review. 

Especially I want to thank you for all my little typos you had the patience to point out. They are a nuisance and keep reappearing and I am very glad that you helped me correct them.

I also have to thank you for your other remarks and advice:

The allegation of forced castrations in Durch Catholic institutions has been widely discussed at the time. I added a Reference in the Footnote on page 3 to a Dutch study that gives better proof to this castration allegation of Dutch survivors.

On p. 16 I added a Footnote concerning the „new policy“ Timlin mentions in his quotation and added a reference to the US Bishops’ Conference Charter’s Document from 2002 that contains the rule that all accused priests should be removed from ministry permanently.

I added some lines on p. 3 that in order to make clear that all the data and cases presented and analyzed in the paper concern the Catholic Church in the US, and why.

Finally, I added a footnote (FN 1) referencing the Australian Commission Report.

My paper has been improved by your review. Thank you for this!

Best wishes,

D. Reisinger