The
New York Times and
Religion News Service both have advance reports on a study that is to be released today by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops titled
The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010. The study was carried out by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and was funded largely by the bishops and Catholic organizations. Here are some excerpts for the RNS summary of the 150-page
[corrected] study:
The first myth challenged by the study is that priests tend to be pedophiles. Of nearly 6,000 priests accused of abuse over the past half century (about 5 percent of the total number of priests serving during that period), less than 4 percent could be considered pedophiles, the report notes—that is, men who prey on children....
Second, the researchers found no statistical evidence that gay priests were more likely than straight priests to abuse minors.... The disproportionate number of adolescent male victims was about opportunity, not preference or pathology, the report states.
What’s more, researchers note that the rise in the number of gay priests from the late 1970s onward actually corresponded with “a decreased incidence of abuse—not an increased incidence of abuse.”
Similarly, celibacy remained a constant throughout peaks and valleys of abuse rates, and priests may be less likely to abuse children today than men in analogous professions.... Better preparation for a life of celibacy is key, however, and improved seminary training and education in the 1980s corresponds to a “sharp and sustained decline” in abuse since then—a dramatic improvement that has often been overlooked.
The huge spike in abuse cases in the 1960s and 1970s, the authors found, was essentially due to emotionally ill-equipped priests who were trained in earlier years and lost their way in the social cataclysm of the sexual revolution.
UPDATE: Here is the
full text of the report, along with a
press release from the Conference of Bishops and
other related material.
