{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T23:51:28Z","timestamp":1790985088655,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,16]],"date-time":"2025-04-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1744761600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100025051","name":"St. Vincent's Health Australia","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100025051","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy or other Church leaders can cause harm to the spirituality of people who are subject to this abuse, which also has impacts on their overall health. We conducted a systematic scoping review to examine how Spiritual Harm in this context is operationalized in the literature with specific reference to the Catholic Church. Literature searches were conducted across Academic Search Complete, Informit Database, ProQuest, Web of Science and Google Scholar in 2022 and updated throughout 2023. Eligible studies were published between 2002\u20132022 and included peer reviewed empirical research, systematic reviews, discussion, or perspective papers that explored spiritual and\/or religious harm and sexual abuse in a church context, and the psychological, emotional, and spiritual impact of the abuse. The review included 12 research articles. Data were analysed using qualitative approaches and presented as a narrative summary. Reporting follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines for scoping reviews. Spiritual Harm in people who are subject to clerical sexual abuse is understood as a distinct condition or phenomena, comprising of complex spiritual, emotional and psychological components. However, it is not consistently defined. Understanding Spiritual Harm in a more comprehensive and consistent way is important in order to be able to adequately respond to the needs of victims, survivors, their families and wider communities.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0317821","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,16]],"date-time":"2025-04-16T17:32:56Z","timestamp":1744824776000},"page":"e0317821","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["The impact of clergy sexual abuse on spirituality and health: A systematic scoping review of the literature"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9948-4794","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Joanne","family":"Durkin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rachel","family":"Zordan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthew","family":"Bullen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nadia","family":"Pavich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Patricia Therese Benedict","family":"Thomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carolyn","family":"Lethborg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wendy","family":"Holder","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Melinda","family":"Jolly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Darlene","family":"Dreise","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniel","family":"Fleming","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,16]]},"reference":[{"issue":"10","key":"pone.0317821.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"830","DOI":"10.1016\/S2215-0366(19)30286-X","article-title":"Long-term 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Wright","year":"2017","journal-title":"Child Abuse Negl"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0317821.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1139","DOI":"10.1177\/0886260516650966","article-title":"\u201cI Will Never Know the Person Who I Could Have Become\u201d: Perceived changes in self-identity among adult survivors of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse","volume":"34","author":"SD Easton","year":"2016","journal-title":"J Interpers Violence"},{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0317821.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"242","DOI":"10.1037\/trm0000183","article-title":"Consequences of abuse by religious authorities: A review","volume":"25","author":"DM McGraw","year":"2019","journal-title":"Traumatology"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0317821.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1177\/00846724211060391","article-title":"Spiritual trauma as a manifestation of religious and spiritual struggles in female victims of sexual abuse in adolescence or young adulthood 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