Hazdovac Bajić, Nikolina and Zrinščak, Siniša and Marinović Jerolimov, Dinka (2025) Sexual abuse and the Catholic Church in Croatia: cases but not (yet?) scandals. In: From cases to scandals: sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion (16). Brill, Leiden, pp. 205-221. ISBN 978-90-04-74668-8 (Print), 978-90-04-74669-5 (Online)
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This chapter focuses on the sexual abuse committed by the Catholic clergy in Croatia. It investigates whether several publicly discussed cases of abuse have become full-fledged scandals that have affected the Catholic Church’s reputation in the country. Theoretically, the chapter follows the work of Céline Béraud on sexual abuse scandals in French Catholicism – that is, it asks why and how cases of abuse transform into scandals. It also draws on research on how the media present sexual abuse cases, both internationally and in Croatia. Empirically, the chapter is based on how four leading national and regional newspapers covered six prominent cases of priests accused of sexually abusing minors. The analysis revealed that these cases were not covered extensively and that some newspapers published a surprisingly low number of articles about them. Based also on other elements, the chapter concludes that the newspapers in question presented the cases as isolated instances rather than examples of a major social problem. It seems that the cases did not affect the social standing of the Catholic Church. The chapter discusses several reasons for this, including the historical position of the church in Croatia and how society deals with sexual abuse more generally.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Language: English. - Book editors: Céline Béraud, Giuseppe Giordan. - Book series ISSN: 1877-5233. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Croatia, Catholic Church, scandals, media, sexual abuse |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
| Depositing User: | Karolina |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Dec 2025 20:25 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Dec 2025 20:25 |
| URI: | http://idiprints.knjiznica.idi.hr/id/eprint/1254 |
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