Logo of John Jay College
of Criminal Justice
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Cover of the report
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The Origins
of the
Sexual Abuse Crisis
First Sunday of June 2011:
Sunday after the Ascension
Why did the Roman Catholic Church experience a sexual abuse crisis? There are no simple answers, according to a five-year study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which studied thousands of cases, including a 1970's-era study on the psychology of priests.1
Karen Terry explained: "We did the writing. None of the bishops had any influence on the findings.” Only a tiny percentage of the accused priests―less than 5 percent―could be technically defined as pedophiles, meaning adults with a primary, intense attraction to children who have not yet gone through puberty.
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Seminaries could not have done a better job screening for likely offenders because abusive priests had no common profile. No evidence was found that celibacy contributed to sexual abuse, but neither was homosexuality to blame. While more boys than girls have been abused, the argument is that priests had greater access to boys. In fact, it said, the incidence of sexual abuse in the priesthood began declining not long after a noticeable rise in the number of gays entering Catholic seminaries in the 1970s.
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Dominican Hippies of the 1960s
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A major reason for the rise in abuse was the spirit of the 1960s. "There's a sexual revolution, there's an increased amount of drug use, there's an increase in crime, there's an increase in things like premarital sex, in divorce… there's change. And the men who are in the priesthood are affected by these social factors."
Once the Church unearthed the problem, it was addressed. Beginning in the early 1990's, bishops set up systems to prevent abuse and to screen problem clerics more thoroughly. “The peak of this abuse crisis is historical. That peak is over.” But the response to the abuse continues, and there must continue to be accountability and transparency from the bishops to address this problem. Some dioceses are better than others, but overall, they have made great progress—a claim that even some critics agree with.
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Liberal priest, Fr. McSorley
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In these fatal years of the 60’s, the Church underwent its peaceful revolution. For what motive? For ecumenism. At what price? At any price. The Church wanted at any cost to establish peace with the world under the standard of ecumenism. Such an illusory ideal would break the backs of many well-intentioned priests reaching out to the world of the 60’s and its new gospel: peace at any price, economic liberalization, freedom from taboos, and the hippie movement, culminating in student protests.
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The sexual problems among priests are the result of the disintegration of the spiritual culture of the Church that was buttressed by ascetical discipline. Without a vigorous spiritual culture, the psychology of the priest wanders from the path of holiness and is held hostage by social forces… overwhelmingly sexual.2
Celibacy demands a great sacrifice that lacks meaning when it is no longer understood that the Catholic Church is the only Church of Jesus Christ. Since other churches seem to be on about the same level as the Catholic Church, why is only the Catholic clergy celibate? This sacrifice truly requires an absolute cause. Ecumenism does away with the Catholic supremacy, but the Church does not do away with the sacrifice of its ministers. Under such conditions it is very difficult for celibacy to be respected and maintained. Destruction of the objective faith regarding the doctrine takes away subjective faith in commitment.
Hence, this report, which is quite fair for the most part, makes one slight mistake: it “forgets” to mention the impact of Vatican II on the question of the priestly crisis.
Footnotes
1. Cf. /www.npr.org/2011/05/18/136436728/catholic-bishops-release-sex-abuse....
2. After Asceticism, The Linacre Institute, Bloomington IN, 2006, p. 170.
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