Counseling in Chicago with Bill Martin, LCSW

A key question in the recovered memory debate is whether it’s possible for someone to forget traumatic abuse and then remember it later, sometimes decades later.

If you want to move ahead and study some of the research validating this forgetting and remembering process, go to the following websites:

• Recovered Memory Project, Professor Ross Cheit, Ph.D.  Brown University

• Recovered Memories of Sexual Abuse: Scientific Research & Scholarly Resources, Jim Hopper, Ph.D.

• Memory and Abuse: The Recovered Memory Controversy, Ken Pope, Ph.D.

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Despite the canon law established by the Council of Elvira, the sexual abuse of children by pedophile priests and clergy, as well as other inappropriate sexual activities and relationships were widespread throughout the history of the Catholic church up to the present time.

Reverend Thomas Doyle, in his “A very short history of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic church”, notes:

“By the 9th century collections of the growing mass of legislation began to appear.  These were unofficial and generally poorly organized attempts at putting at least some of the known legislation in the same place.”

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For those who may be interested in reading each specific law enacted at the Council of Elvira, I am reprinting them on this post.

You can also read them here.

Why are they significant?

These canon laws enacted in the 4th Century clearly document the major concerns, perhaps preoccupation, of early Catholic church leaders with pedophilia, adultery, sexual misconduct of bishops and clergy, and the sexual life of early Christians.

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I know it may be hard to believe the Catholic church leaders were already preoccupied with sex in the early 4th Century, but they were.

Keep in mind, 306AD was 1,706 years ago. So, for over 1,700 years, the Catholic church and their decision makers have been aware, concerned, and trying to manage the damage caused by the sexual violations of their bishops and clerics.

What kind of sex?

Here is a summary of the types of sexual behaviors the Council of Elvira addressed and tried to control:

• Sexual abuse of children, adolescents and adults by bishops, priests, and other clergy

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If you were raised a Catholic in the 50’s and 60’s as I was, you will also be shocked to find out the Catholic clergy have been sexually abusing children, adolescents and adults since the early days of the church.

The notion that sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is a modern phenomenon is the public relations and legal strategy used today to explain and defend against responsibility for this betrayal of children and families.

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Recovered memories refers to the phenomenon of human beings forgetting aspects of their personal history, especially related to abuse experiences, then remembering it later, often decades later.

Psychotherapists meeting in the safety of the clinical room have often been witness to the lighting up of a person’s memory circuits when they begin to remember some earlier abuse experience.

It’s a powerful moment for both client and therapist.

A client may become reflective, tuned inward to sensations, images, emotions, then look

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