Crimen pessimum, or: Naming ‘the foulest crime.’ A conceptual history of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church (1850-1922).

• Applicant: Dr. Giulia Marotta
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540459795

In 1922 we have the first official document issued by the Catholic Church specifically devoted to the subject of clergy sexual abuse, the Instruction of the Holy Office titled Crimen sollicitationis, on the manner of proceeding in causes of solicitation of sex by a priest. Crimen sollicitationis defines solicitation itself as a crime, regardless of gender and/or age as well as absence/presence of consent. A distinct paragraph describes the crimen pessimum (“the foulest crime,” “the worst possible crime”), i.e., any kind of sexual act between a cleric and a person of his own sex. The document also describes child sexual abuse – both hetero- and homosexual – as crimen pessimum, at least with regard to the penalties. Thus, on the one hand, Crimen sollicitationis offers a definition of “the worst possible crime” as a crime that clearly refers to the sphere of sexuality; on the other hand, the document manifests the ambiguity of the concept of crimen pessimum, at times equated merely to homosexual acts and at times extended to other situations of sexual misconduct, including child sexual abuse. Additionally, the Instruction Crimen sollicitationis displays fundamental principles that are still in place today in the Catholic Church’s way of dealing with sexual abuse. However, the historical constellation that preceded it is substantially unknown. If Crimen sollicitationis is a point of arrival, what is the conceptual path that led to it? How did the Holy See conceive, respond to, and regulate what is now defined as ‘sexual abuse’ during the nineteenth century? What kind of theoretical-linguistic devices did it develop and use to describe cases of sexual abuse without connoting them as such? What are the exact meanings behind expressions such as crimen pessimum, il pessimo, sodomy, fornication, contra naturam? The long pre-history of the 1922 instruction can be reconstructed through the two-way interactions between bishops and Holy Office on the subject of sexual solicitation, documented in the Dubia de poenitentia sec. XIX (doubts/queries and answers on the sacrament of confession) and Dubia varia sec. XIX (doubts/queries and answers on various subjects) hosted in the fund Sanctum Officium of the Archivum Congregationis Doctrinae Fidei (ACDF, S.O.). These Dubia, the episcopal and curial correspondence preserved in local archives of the dioceses affected by cases of clergy sexual abuse and the records of the ecclesiastical prosecution of violations through the dismissal of priests from the clerical state (the so-called Dispensationes, i.e., dispensation from celibate or all clerical functions) are the main sources to reconstruct the Catholic development of fundamental concepts related to the issue of clergy sexual abuse.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Sweden
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Yvonne Maria Werner