The Impact of Pedophile Priests on American Catholic Education: Reflections of a Cradle Catholic

Highly publicized incidents involving pedophile priests have shined the light on this pathology, the American Roman Catholic Church\u27s worst-kept secret. Yet, the sad saga of priestly child abuse of young men and boys, a dilemma that, tragically, is not limited to the United States, to Catholic clergy, or religion generally, has been reasonably well-chronicled in the secular press but has not been subject to much in the way of independent academic or empirical scrutiny. Consequently, the first part of this article provides historical background on the development of American Catholic schools, a loosely federated system of what are basically independent schools, thereby setting the stage for the second part. This section discusses data on the size and growth of Catholic schools to demonstrate that as serious as the scandal has been in recent years, it cannot be overstated because Catholic schools have functioned well as a national network of loosely coupled institutions