A new study by the U.S. Conference of Bishops argues that neither celibacy nor homosexuality can be blamed for the clerical abuse scandal within the U.S. Catholic Church.
The report, which was published on Wednesday argues that clerical abuse is a result of ill-prepared, inadequately monitored and overworked priests performing their duties during the social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s.
The 300-page report was conducted by researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City over the course of five years with a cost of $1.8 million.
The funding for the report was provided by the U.S. Catholic Church, with additional financial support coming from other Catholic groups as well as from the Department of Justice.
As the revelations of clerical abuse continue to emerge worldwide, many critics argue that all-male celibate priesthood as well as a high number of gay priests was the main cause of the abuse crisis.
The report, entitled 'The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950- 2010' argues otherwise.
It states that of the nearly 6,000 U.S. priests accused of sexual abuse in the last six decades only four percent demonstrated behavior consistent with paedophilia, which it defines as ““psychiatric disorder that is characterised by recurrent fantasies, urges and behaviours about pre-pubescent children”.
The study acknowledges that gay men began entering the priesthood “in noticeable numbers” during the 1970s and 1980s. However it argues that abuse decreased rather than increased when more gay priests entered the church.
Improved seminary training and education and an overall better preparation for a life of celibacy are important precautions against clerical abuse, the report concludes.
Commenting on the report senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said: “We’ve always said that the celibate priesthood has nothing to do with it [clerical sex abuse], so this is no surprise to us . . . The non-connection with priestly celibacy and with homosexuality are two very relevant points . . . as is the dateline.”
_______________________________________________
Read More:
Irish Christian Brothers convinced abuse crisis will destroy them
Vatican tells priests to report abuse to police
Cork report into clerical child abuse within the Church will be published
_________________________________________________
25 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.SingleDonald | May 24, 2011, 04:56 PM EDT
Well put, proudirishlass! We have come a long way, considering most people no longer accept the Church's ridiculous dogma, regarding human sexuality! As far as "removing the collar", that is one idea. A better one would be to allow priests to go out with women, and eventually marry one! Yes, they should be permitted to date women from their own parish, so long as no "heavy duty" counseling has taken place. Even there, after the passage of 1-2 years, this should be okay, as the woman will no longer be in a vulnerable state of mind..
proudirishlass | May 22, 2011, 02:10 PM EDT
I cannot believe the lame excuses made for these low life scum of the earth pedophiles. It is quite simple they are in a position of authority and with their sick warped minds use that authority to abuse the poor innocent children. I have come to the conclusion that the priestHOOD is nothing more than a secret pedophile organization.Have you ever wondered why so many priests commit this crime? Its simple they were sick before they joined and only joined because they knew that their actions were acceptable and condoned. Parents need to wake up and not be so trusting of the church and quivering under the threat of hellfire.I honestly believe that these pedophile priests do NOT believe in GOD yet hypocritically preach to the innocent and trusting masses. Too often i hear the excuse they are only human with human needs. I beg to differ they are not human they are lower than animals. If they need sexual gratification they can remove the collar and get out into the world. Oh,but i nearly forgot they would have to give up their cushy life and work for a living.Please stop cowering down and worshiping these people that is how they feel they are above the law.
Searlit | May 22, 2011, 10:37 AM EDT
I agree mayoman makes good comments, too. Eiriamach, your comments can be so uplifting, they help me focus.
Collette2 | May 22, 2011, 04:53 AM EDT
mayoman, unlike layman, they can have it always, retain their profession with all the perks, food on their plate, women to bed, populating the country at the taxpayers expense and their funerals taken care of. Oh, and I forgot, the confessional to deal with all their human weaknesses.
eiriamach | May 21, 2011, 05:16 PM EDT
mayoman, I appreciate your comments too. I don't recall ever disagreeing with them! Thanks also to searlit, whose postings are always clear and to the point.
SingleDonald | May 21, 2011, 10:54 AM EDT
I'm happy the bishops have finally acknoowledged the large # of homosexual candidates to the priesthood. A 60 Minutes segment questioned whether the priesthood has become a "Gay Men's Club"! This being said, and not even considering pedophilia, you would think the Church would develop a more tolerant attitude towards homosexuality. How can it be hypocritical, when a significant # of its priests are gay?
SingleDonald | May 21, 2011, 10:50 AM EDT
I was the 1st to post yesterday, but it wasn't recorded. I said that I was skepticl. One view of what causes pedophilia is that the pedophiles had their sexuality stifled, at an early age. They then seek out those who were their contemporaries, at the time of sexual supression. I know that only a small % of homosexuals abuse abuse little boys, the same way that a small % of heterosexuals abuse little girls. Yet, the enforced celibacy, I believe, can trigger such pedophilic actions. The men studying for the priesthood have no intentions of marriage. At some point, the sexual supression may well be fought. Hopefully, the giving up of the celibacy will entail a warm, consensual relationship with a woman, not a child.
mayoman | May 20, 2011, 07:54 PM EDT
eiriamach: I much appreciate your wise and insightful comments. Thank you.
mayoman | May 20, 2011, 06:26 PM EDT
Other than the paralysis of tradition, and an innate conservativism that prevents it from changing in any meaningful way, why does the Catholic Church still insist on maintaining mandatory celibacy? Why continue with such a troublesome practice that was not part of the early Church for the first 300 years of his history?
eiriamach | May 20, 2011, 06:13 PM EDT
Yes, the bishops are responsible for abusive priests. But bishops do not have replacement priests, and the Vatican keeps tight control over what the bishops can do. I've known priests who have been overworked for a long time, as this report says the abusive priests were. The priests I've known also became lonely for companionship. One left the Church when he found friendship elsewhere. As for bishops: in a 2006 newsletter, Bishop Morris of Toowoomba in Australia discussed the possibility of ordaining women and married men in order to meet the future needs of his parishes, where too few priests are seriously over-stretched. A group of conservative "temple police" wrote to the Vatican about his mentioning non-traditional priests, and after sending a "Visitation" to Toowoomba, the pope asked Bishop Morris to resign. He was handling-- handling well and fairly, according to all reports-- a sexual abuse case, so the bishop declined to leave office until his work was complete. On May 2, after he had repeatedly refused to resign, the Vatican removed Bishop Morris. Priests who are over-burdened with work have alternatives to abusing children. None of the alternatives is easy, but they are all certainly preferable to criminal child abuse. Bishops are responsible, but if they do not obey the Vatican, they are out of their jobs, so it takes real moral courage to act responsibly. Authority resides only at the top of this organization.
Ms.Gail | May 20, 2011, 05:25 PM EDT
I've found all the discussion interesting. But like many organizations, moral cowardace has emergede overt the past 6 decades in respect to supervision and management. The pastors, monsenigeours, bishops,etc. who did not take corrective action when a cleric under their supervision committed such an awful trangression is to be held accountable. Taking corrective action was his responsibility. Yes the offeneder is responsible for his action, but after one instance, the supervising man becomes responsible as well. Anyone who has ever been a good boss or worked for a good boss knows this and could have saved the almost $2 million.
eiriamach | May 20, 2011, 04:10 PM EDT
JohnShuster @12:49 raises a complex issue. Olovely is right: most pedophiles are heterosexual, but priest-abusers are a special category of pedophile that is homophobic and at the same time often homosexual! David Berger's book "Der heilige Schein: Als schwuler Theologe..." (The Holy Illusion: A Gay Theologian in the Catholic Church) explains the paradox. Young social conservatives are drawn to the priesthood by a love of authority and the beauty of the liturgy with its court-of-the-king imagery, luxurious vestments, and elaborate, all-male ceremonies. Some of these conservatives are gay. As Berger said in a Spiegel interview, "I hope that the church will at last confront the issue of homophobia. It must recognize that a large proportion of the Catholic clerics and trainee priests in Europe and the US are homosexual." He explains that gay priests sublimate their sexuality; they derive sexual gratification from lives of prayer and ritual: "This is a technique that even the Catechism of the Catholic Church seems to suggest to homosexually oriented men.... nothing reprehensible from the Church’s perspective. This has happened throughout history. Much mysticism is animated by such sublimation." As long as they sublimate, they can deny their homosexuality; they repress it because as conservatives they loathe the idea of it. They find support (& anti-Semitism, misogyny, etc.) in groups like SSPX, Legionaries of Christ, FP St. Peter, Opus Dei. But as Freud teaches, when we repress, we give the repressed desires power over us, and abuse can erupt. The Vatican has blackmailed outed gay priests to blame its sex scandals on liberal, secular influences: "you have to be anti-modern to have a career in the Catholic Church," so the cycle repeats....
IAPRINCESS | May 20, 2011, 03:30 PM EDT
Well, I'll be darned! At first the excuse wa homos and the inability to marry were blamed. Now someone with a "brain" has made a statement I can accept. It is not the fault of gays or celebit people who are abusing, it is SICK MEN AND WOMEN, It is not only in the RCC either but they botched up their approach to being honest at the outset.
LoyalCitizen | May 20, 2011, 03:06 PM EDT
It has and always will be caused by corrupt judicial systems who think that only the poor can commit crimes.
Chiefjustice | May 20, 2011, 02:54 PM EDT
I only know of one priest, that had the reputation for likeing young boys. He was transfured. Then beaten and robbed in his own parish. Arrested on the interstate for loitering for sex. The responce from the bishop. Move him again. thay kept covering for him until his death several years ago... I was often the only decenting vote when the K of C voted him a Christmas gift...
pounder | May 20, 2011, 02:42 PM EDT
Homosexuality, plain and simple are the root of theses assaults.
JohnShuster | May 20, 2011, 01:29 PM EDT
I want to know why all the "good priests" have been so passive in rooting out sex abusers and so silent in speaking out against their fellow predators and in support of the victim survivors? Where is the brave heart of the priest in these men?
butlerreport | May 20, 2011, 01:20 PM EDT
Another head in the sand report by a desperate organization. Sexual abuse of children has according to Judge Murphy being going on in the Catholic Church since its formation in 300 ACE. There is nothing 'normal' about sexually abusing children; it's not a natural response to the swinging sixties or stress. It reflects one thing; a sexual interest in children. It doesn't have to be an exclusive interest in children but it ends the same way. he fact is that pedophiles and sex abusers deceive and will not admit to anything. The church is in essence turning the blame away from themselves and onto society (you and me) for leading these men astray and causing their abuse (rape and molestation) of babies, infants, little children, pre and post-teens. It's time for this to stop or be stopped.
olovely | May 20, 2011, 01:20 PM EDT
Where's Bill O' Donohue now that his personal theories have been disproved by years of careful academic study? Nowhere in sight. And it's laughable and offensive to read that some deluded thinkers here believe if if priests could marry women, there'd never be any child abuse in the Church. That's insupportable nonsense. The fact is that the majority of child sexual abuse is done by heterosexual men and their maritial status has nothing whatsoever to do with it.
eiriamach | May 20, 2011, 12:55 PM EDT
AngelPrecious, and no one has said that most priests are not "good, holy men." This article is not about "most priests." It is about a two-million-dollar study that ignored the failure of Catholic bishops to deal with the (many--not just a few) priests who are pedophiles. The study also tries to excuse the pedophiles themselves by scapegoating the bishops' one-dimensional biased view of the 1960s and '70s.
JohnShuster | May 20, 2011, 12:49 PM EDT
When news of the sex abuse atrocity first hit the media in America in 2002, do you recall the first corporate response from the US hierarchy? Their proclamation was “Celibacy does not cause pedophilia.” Most people nodded in agreement with this deflection, but there was a deeper issue at play. Of all the subjects they could have addressed, why did they choose to protect mandatory celibacy first and foremost? Mandatory celibacy and the myth of sexual continence/purity are critical to cloaking and protecting the gay majority culture of the priesthood. So, it makes good sense for concerned Catholics to examine the role of mandatory celibacy as a central issue of making bishops accountable to the people in the pews. Mandatory celibacy is critical to maintaining the current dynamics of sexual politics in the priesthood. With mandatory celibacy lifted for priesthood, all viable candidates will be able to present themselves for priestly studies and ordination. Many are called to priesthood, but few to mandatory celibacy. The influx of married persons and women into the priesthood would dilute the predominantly homosexual power block in the church. Will the current hierarchy ever allow that to happen?
AngelPrecious | May 20, 2011, 12:28 PM EDT
Oh for PETE"S SAKE! The numbers of priests displaying this reprehensible behavior is small in comparison to the general population. That does not excuse the behavior of the abusers but c'mon folks, most priests are good, holy men!!!
Searlit | May 20, 2011, 12:00 PM EDT
eiriamach, I was going to post my thoughts on this article, but you have, once again, let lose the arrow of truth that has shattered the indefensible target - the lies, and excuses made for dangerous pedophiles in the priesthood.
eiriamach | May 20, 2011, 10:27 AM EDT
Perhaps the report's most ludicrous claim is that only 4% of priests accused of pedophilia exhibited "behavior consistent with paedophilia." The primary "behavior consistent with paedophilia" is raping children or exploiting them sexually in related reprehensible ways. This behavior all of the guilty accused priests exhibited.
eiriamach | May 20, 2011, 10:13 AM EDT
That's an interesting subtitle on this article: "Abuse a result of being overworked." The USCCB report has been called "the Woodstock Defense" and the "Rock and Roll Made Me Do It" defense, and now we can add "The Newt Gingrich Defense." There is no defense. There is only the possibility of radical reform, a possibility that seems to diminish with every word that comes from the Vatican or the bishops.