Introduction On 8 th December 2005, 36 year old Bradley Duane Hoschouer was sentenced to serve a prison term of 260 months and a further 5 years of supervision upon his release. The reason is that he had sexually harassed a minor and impregnated her. Evidence brought before the court pointed out that Duane had had sexual intercourse with a 14 year old girl who, sadly, happened to be his daughter. Speaking to the court, the girl said that her father had been abusing her sexually ever since she was 13 years but she could not report the affair because of fear. The girl had given birth to a baby boy and the DNA report ascertained that Duane was the biological father. The girl had given up hope and had decided to accompany Duane to North Carolina where he had decided to look for work (Department of Justice 2005, par. 2). Such cases are on the increase globally. Sexual abuse, and more so on the minors, has taken centre stage in the last decade. This has forced different states to come up with statutes that outlaw this act. Just like in Duane’s case, those behind cases of child abuse are almost always acquainted with the victims. Such cases involve fathers, teachers, caregivers, pastors, priests, and uncles, amongst others. However, sexual abuse of children by the clergy is on the increase at an alarming rate. Wide demographic disparities have been reported to exist between on the one hand, sexual abuse by members of the clergy and on the other hand, sexual abuse as witnessed from the larger population (Penrod, Schlesinger & Terry, 2004, p. 12). The authors opine after 9 to 13 years following their ordination, a celibate priest shall usually start struggling with issues concerning their sexuality. Such wide disparities between priests who commit sexual abuse and the other perpetrators from the general population could be indicative of a desire by the members of the clergy to fulfil intimacy. This is because if they were only after gratifying themselves sexually, or a need to assert their power control as reported by Haggett (2005 p. 32), we would not experience a large difference in terms of the number of members of the clergy who abuse children sexually, and the perpetrators of sexual abuse from the general public. The Catholic Church has especially been affected following the involvement of members of its clergy in the sexual abuse of minors. In 2002, a number of the Catholic Dioceses were obliged to expose their files concerning child sexual abuse not just to the police but also the public. Several organizations joined in the public outcry advocating for reforms in the structure of the Catholic Church. Some people even called upon the Catholic Church to revoke its priestly celibacy vow and allow its clergy to get married. There was a further call for the church to allow for the ordination of female priests and even their consecration as bishops (Robinson 2006, par. 6). Defence of the Church However, the Catholic Church has taken this as a moral panic. The Catholic Church has argued that the public’s generalization of the issue to involve the whole unit of the Catholic Church was simply a result of the structural characteristics of the church’s monolithic centralized organization. As a result, the church argued that