Very few cases of clerical abuse of minors involved true pedophilia: the sexual abuse of pre-pubertal children. Pedophiles often claim not to be homosexuals, and they may well be correct is this claim, but pedophilia is not the main problem in clerical abuse.
Most cases involved children at or above the age of puberty, and the vast majority of the reported victims were male. Decades of studies by criminologists and psychologists have shown that boys are far less likely to report abuse than girls are, because boys fear the stigma of homosexuality and because males are supposed to suffer and not complain.
The John Jay report claims that is the abusive priests had equal access to females, they would have had equal number of male and female victims. This I doubt. I won’t go into the nature of the sexual acts that priest did with boys, but let us say that they were focused on the male genitals. Many abusers seem to have been initiated into the culture of abuse by other priests, often in the seminary.
The priesthood is not the equivalent of prison; most parishioners are female, and a heterosexual cleric who wants to can find many partners among young adult women, Homosexual priests have few young men at their disposal, since young men rapidly distance themselves from church. The only available males are, in general, married men and adolescent boys.
A homosexual priest may not be more likely to offend than a heterosexual priest. But when he does offend he is almost certain to have many more victims. Priest whose victims were males sometimes had scores, even hundreds, even thousands (Cardinal Groër) of victims. Again studies by psychologists have shown that homosexuals have far more partners than heterosexuals do, as one would expect, given the nature of male sexuality.
Political correctness should not prevent us from seeing the role that clerical homosexuality played in the abuse; but even more important was the failure of the bishops, including the bishop of Rome, to discipline criminal clergy and to protect children.
I thought the John Jay Report would elicit a comment from you Dr. Podles.
I believe you are spot-on in pointing out these fellows had plenty of access to females. What I wonder is whether they would still be classified as homosexuals, or would they be ephophiles? Is there a meaningful difference, in your opinion, between these two groups? Do large numbers of the men who have sex with other men, also have sex with teen boys? Do you believe the problem (sexual interest in teenage boys) is still a problem, or even widespread in the Catholic clergy?
One of my classmates at seminary got busted for this (out of 15 of us), and two other guys who left the priethood in my diocese, were rumoured to have “liked” teen boys. But it doesn’t seem problematic where I am, thank God! The priests I know who have misbehaved, have done so with adult women. Given some of the headlines, I was tempted to give them my congratulations!
While growing up in a Catholic school in the 50’s and 60’s, I was abused by priests until I graduated from high school. I’m a female. Abusers have many many victims and I don’t think being a ‘homosexual’ has anything to do with how many victims they may abuse. Abusers usally have many victims. It’s now about sex, it’s about power and control. Females are not believed when they report to the church/dioceses. They are called liars. This is uniform across the U.S. dioceses and it’s understandable because the church has a history of women being not equal to men inherited from the ancient Greek, Roman, Hebrew and Celtic cultures. Heterosexuals can and do have lots of sex partners too, married or not.
No, being Gay does not make one a sexual predator. To say so would be akin to saying all Straight People sexually victimized children and young people of the opposite sex. The Catholic Priest who sexually violated me preferred little girls and has been been profiled for over 200 Victims.
It’s just considered more normal to abuse females and we haven’t heard from all of the girls who have been raped by priests.
I was abused as an adult woman by a priest and i don’t think he knew what his sexual orientation was.
He used hypnosis and some remote influences to undermine my trust in christ. He put his hands on me in the confessional.
(just one of many molests)
.
There was nothing consentual about it. It was abuse of power.
I know i am not alone and that i am not counted in the priest abuse statistics.
I think the abuse of adult women and girls by priests is very common, but females are not considered worth much by the catholic religion and abuse of them is more of an accepted crime.
Church Abuse: Boys 230% More Likely To Be Abused Than Girls - Page 2 - Politics.ie
[…] you are familiar with the author you will know that he is a strong critic of the Church hierarchy: Sexual Abuse and Homosexual Priests __________________ But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and […]
It’s funny, I’m neither religious [in relation to the the religions of this world] nor gay. I believe in creationism and evolution combined. People destroyed this world with their political correctness and extreme re-written versions of the bible on the religious side. What’s also interesting- I would be considered celibate. People, in all their self interest, destroyed this world. They all invaded my privacy and destroyed my life and I want it back.
“Pedophiles often claim not to be homosexuals, and they may well be correct is this claim, but pedophilia is not the main problem in clerical abuse.”
You can see more about that?