C. Colt Anderson, Ph.D., professor of Christian Spirituality and former dean of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, recently co-authored an article in Commonweal Magazine about the role of seminaries in the clergy sexual abuse crisis:
“As former seminary professors, we have looked upon the last several months of revelations about clergy sex abuse, cover-ups, and institutional infighting with the same disgust and sadness as our sisters and brothers—but we are not surprised. Though we honor and support the many good people who work and study in seminaries, we know that seminaries have played a significant role in the church’s current crisis. It is essential to understand how priests and thus, ultimately, bishops are formed, especially the way they are enculturated into clericalism from their first days in seminary. It is the air they breathe there.”
