Bishops study: Homosexuality, celibacy didn't cause abuse

[AnOhioan]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Researchers commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops to analyze the pattern of clergy sex abuse have concluded that homosexuality, celibacy and an all-male priesthood did not cause the scandal.

The study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York instead said that the problem was largely the result of poor seminary training and insufficient emotional support for men ordained in the 1940s and 1950s, who were not able to withstand the social upheaval they confronted as pastors in the 1960s. Crime and other deviant behavior increased overall in the United States during this period, when the rate of abuse by priests was climbing.

“The rise in abuse cases in the 1960s and 1970s was influenced by social factors in society generally,” the report’s authors said. “Factors that were invariant during the time period addressed, such as celibacy, were not responsible for the increase or decline in abuse cases over this time

Read more: http://news-herald.com/articles/2011/05/18/news/doc4dd3f1cac39b2580278962.txt

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In other words...it wasn't the church...it was society. Give me break

[JDPriestly]

1. So then why the cases in Austria, Germany, Ireland, etc.?

Actually, it's that for a good Catholic who feels ashamed of his sexual needs and preferences, the priesthood is a great place to hide out. You can wallow in shame and hide your sexuality and people think you are wonderful for it.

Same true but to a lesser extent for certain Protestant clergy.

Ah, but the flesh is weak.

[fascisthunter]

2. well, pedophilia isn't caused by those things

pedophiles seek out the church because it's a way to gain acess to a victim. However, the Church spent years condoning the behavior by ignoring the fact that pedophiles don't get better. Also, they denied pedophilia existed in the church for years which worsened the church.

[AlbertCat]

6. a way to gain acess to a victim.

With "god given" authority over them already built in.

It's an authority thing not a sex thing. If you can't be a cop, be a priest!

[gratuitous]

3. It was those damn hippies!

Didn't you just somehow feel it in your bones that that's where the fault lay, all this time? Tip for practicing Catholics: See if the good Father will let you off with a lighter penance at Confession by blaming your sins on those darn hippies.

[bulloney]

16. I laughed out loud when I heard the church give that as an excuse for priests' behavior.

The hippie made me do it!

50 years later, the hippies are still running the country. Who would have thunk it?

[CatholicEdHead]

4. In conservative Catholic circles they blame the gays all the time

I have heard "They are not pedophiles, they are homosexuals" all over conservative Catholic forms. They have purposely switched definitions years ago to deflect blame (e.g. some Relevant Radio shows & Catholic Answers Forms).

[AlbertCat]

9. "They are not pedophiles, they are homosexuals"

Ignoring any hetero instances... and actually "tacetly" ignoring the nuns and little girls. Imagine if the sexes weren't separated so much!

[frebrd]

5. Holy Crap! eom

:puke:

[PDJane]

7. That isn't plausible.

The abuses in the church have been wide-spread and long-term. The changing society isn't to blame for the abuses at residential schools (started in the late 1920's. Google Stolen Children, CBC), nor for the Magdalene laundries and the abuses that went on there (that started in 1767). In fact, the Irish Catholic church was well-known for sexual, emotional and physical abuse at more than 250 church-run institutions. The British government reported on those abuses; that report is 2,600 pages long.

No one has asked my opinion, of course. However, on the grounds that I have had contact with the survivors of those some of those schools, I will say the following:

1. The priests are at the top of a male hierarchy. While there are many great priests, the church system protects the abusive priests and, in truth, abusive nuns. You get the behaviour you reward.

2. In places where the church is dominant, such as the years of the hard-right rule of Duplessis in Québèc, the Catholic church becomes really abusive, and the abuse is not only condoned, it is encouraged. At one time, new brides were meant to get pregnant quickly; if they didn't, the priest offered his assistance in the matter. (That, by the way, is direct testimony from a friend who was, years afterward, a lapsed Catholic. She removed herself to the English-speaking church, where she did not receive such offers of assistance.) Other first hand testimony from Spain found that priests would ask questions of gay parishioners during confession, then pass the information about meeting places and activities on to the Garda...who then, of course, incarcerated the people found there. That came out during research for "Bless Me Father....," a book about Catholic confession (written by two Jews and a lapsed Catholic, but I digress).

3. There is a culture of both guilt and punishment in all too many religions, and the Catholic religion is no stranger to this strain. They are fond of blaming the victim, or society, or the devil or (fill in the blank). This all feeds into point number one.

I may come back to this after a thinking period; right now, the faces of those cowed and abused young people 20 years after the fact of the abuse are in my mind.

[closeupready]

10. Good post. Points which underscore why I finally left the church.

Or maybe the church left me...? Who knows or cares.

[Deep13]

8. Foxes study: animal predators did not cause hen house abuse. nt

[placton]

11. actually it was

SATAN!

[felix_numinous]

12. All this is proving is that the church cannot self govern.

If they cannot control the criminals within their own ranks then enforcement will just have to come from outside. It is not right that the church protects these people.

[libodem]

13. Working Women

Ohhh noes...

[and-justice-for-all]

14. A Roman Catholic bishops analysis of anything

is as worthless as a used condom.

[hootinholler]

15. SO does abstinence make the church grow fondlers?

Line gratuitously stolen from someone's sig.

-Hoot

[colorado_ufo]

17. Not just a river in Egypt.

[lovuian]

18. the cover up continues but the Celibacy law is not Jesus's one

its the church's

[Lynx]

19. ridiculous

It is ridiculous how Holy Mother Church deplores the '60s. In fact, the '60s were a golden age for the Catholic Church, with record number of young people becoming priests and nuns. There were Kennedys in the White House. The Singing Nun on the Ed Sullivan show!
Of course it all fell apart, with record numbers of priests and nuns leaving. Holy Mother should have enjoyed it while it lasted.

[AngryOldDem]

20. I will give the Church credit for this.

It may finally be backing away from its position that homosexuality and celebacy were key factors in the scandal. That is, was, always has been, and always will be unmitigated BULLSHIT.

But using the '60s and '70s is just another excuse to avoid placing the blame where it has really belonged all along -- on the bishops, cardinals, and other members of the hierarchy who aided and abetted these assholes over the course of decades (at least).

When you ordain emotionally stunted and in some cases psychologically sick people because you need them to fill the pulpits, and then turn a blind eye when they begin acting out -- then you reap what you sow and you also ruin many innocent lives as well.

The institution is still in a huge state of denial, even after everyone else has figured out the exact truth of how this tragedy came about: Depraved indifference.

[defendandprotect]

21. Well, that explains the last 2000 years .... !!

Meanwhile, hetereosexual males are 100X more likely to sexually absue children

than homosexual males!!

AND, it is essentially a MALE problem -- which is acknowledged even by the right wing

women's groups --

We might also ask how males come to dominate -- i.e., organized patriarchal religion --

the all-male Vatican --

and essentially try to make themselves "experts" on morality?

[jpak]

22. On NBC Nightly News they blamed free-love hippies and Woodstock for the abuse

:wow:

[Anakin Skywalker]

23. It was Rock 'n Roll, yeah! That's it! Yeah!

[CountAllVotes]

24. the thing they fail to address is this

Woodstock happened in the late 1960s. The molestations have been going on for years, long before the late 1960s.

This is a stupid excuse.

They could have come up with something better than this explanation; almost anything else would have been a better "excuse".

:kick:

[libodem]

25. Inductive research

Or deductive? Someone got paid to come up with the
Correct answer.

[blackdem76]

26. The bishops are in full cya mode.