Report: Priest pedophilia is on the rise

Report: Priest pedophilia is on the rise again, linked to homosexuality

FINDINGS

(1) Catholic clergy mainly prey on boys: Whereas two-thirds of victims in U.S. sex abuse of minors are girls, the vast majority of clergy sex abuse victims — over 8 in 10 victims — were boys. As girls became more prevalent as altar servers, abusers of boys “responded to the presence of fewer younger boys primarily by turning to older boys, not to female victims.” Comparable reports in Germany indicate that up to 90% of abuse victims of Catholic clergy have been male, compared to about half of victims in Protestant or non-religious settings in that country.

(2) By comparing the share of homosexual Catholic priests with the incidence and victim gender of minor sex abuse victims by Catholic priests from 1950 to 2001, the study found a strong correlation between sexual abuse of minors and two factors:

(a) A disproportionate number of homosexual clergy:

The study found that the increase in the number of homosexual men in the priesthood is “almost perfectly” correlated with more overall abuse and more boys abused compared to girls. The correlation is 0.98, where a correlation of 1.0 is an absolute positive correlation. That means that the number of child victims increased at almost the same rate as the percentage of homosexual priests — the greater the percentage of homosexual priests, the greater the number of child, mainly male, victims. While the correlation was lower among victims under age 8, it was still strong, at 0.77. Researchers usually consider correlation association above 0.3 or 0.4 to be a strong effect.

However, in Sullins’ words, “Although over 8 in 10 of victims have been boys, the idea that the abuse is related to homosexual men in the priesthood has not been widely accepted by Church leaders.”

It is not the simple presence of homosexual men in the priesthood that is the correlative factor. Sullins said in a press conference on November 2 that “when homosexual men were represented in the priesthood at about the same rate as they were in the population, there was no measurable problem of child sex abuse. It was only when you had a preponderance of homosexual men.”

The percentage of homosexual men in the general population is estimated at 2%. Beginning in the 1950s, the percentage of homosexuals in the priesthood increased from 4% to 16% by the 1980s, eight times the percentage in the general population. From 1965 to 1995 an average of at least one in five priests ordained annually were homosexual, a concentration which drove the overall proportion of homosexual men in the priesthood up to 16%, or one in six priests, by the late 1990s. Dr. Sullins said, “When you get up to 16% of priests that are homosexual, and you’ve got eight times the proportion of homosexuals as you do in the general population, it’s as if the priesthood becomes a particularly welcoming and enabling and encouraging population for homosexual activity and behavior.”

If the proportion of homosexual priests had remained at the 1950s level, at least 12,000 fewer children, mostly boys, would have suffered abuse.

(b) A homosexual subculture in seminaries:

The presence of homosexual subcultures in seminaries, as reported by priests considering their own seminary life, accounts for about half the incidence of abuse, but not among heterosexual men. Sullins said that homosexual subcultures encourage those who may have been attracted to male victims to act out more than would have been the case otherwise. Seminary candidates have reported about the problems this disproportion creates. Donald Cozzens’ 2000 book, The Changing Face of the Priesthood, has accounts of homosexual students being so prevalent at some seminaries that heterosexual men felt destabilized and disoriented and left.