August 8, 2015 Sexual predators are more prevalent among rabbis, pastors and yogis than among Catholic priests But they are not as widely reported by the secular especially the international media

A study just last week reported that school teachers molest children 100 times more than priests.

A study a number of years ago found that 66% of the molesting cases involving professionals were among the professions of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. 11% were clergy of all types.

Several years ago the Evangelical magazine, "Christianity Today", published a report that revealed the 30% of the Evangelical Protestant pastors "admit" to improper sexual exploitation of their parishioners.

Sexual abuse has been reported in nearly all denominations -- even among the Amish. There is nothing particular about the Catholic Church on this and sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is LESS not more than most other groups.

This does not excuse anyone, especially a priest, from molesting anyone, but we need to get a perspective here. And we need to wonder why there is no media blitz about the mental health/social work profession who molests more children than all other professionals combined.

Also, very few of the priests who were involved in any sexual impropriety were pedophiles. A pedophile is a person who has a sexual attraction primarily or exclusively to pre-pubescent children and not to adults. Nearly all the victims of priests were teenagers, not pre-pubescent children. The proper term for those attracted to teenagers instead of to adults is hebephile.

I might add, as a sidebar, an isolated instance of molesting a child is NOT pedophilia. To be a pedophile, according to the Psychiatric manual one must, among other things, be involved in this activity recurrently and for more than six months and have no or little interest in adults. Some of the people who have molested children were isolated cases, and some of the perpetrators also had sexual interest in adults; thus those particular individuals cannot be classified as pedophiles.

Hebephiles are people whose sexual interests are primarily or exclusively teenagers. Hebephilia is not listed in the Psychiatric manual since attraction to teenagers is considered normal. Most people have an attraction to both teenagers and adults but with a preference to adults.

The problem arises when attraction to teenagers becomes the primary or exclusive sexual interest. This is usually handled in psychiatry as an obsession rather than a sexual paraphilia.

Legally, however, most states make it a crime to have sex with persons under sixteen. In many cultures, however, girls may marry as early as thirteen. That was true even here in the United States not too long ago.

As for how this can happen in a Church? Well, the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a resort for saints, as one Baptist preacher once said. We are all sinners. Even the Pope is a sinner. The Pope goes to confession weekly. People sin, priests sin, bishops sin.

The Church teaching remains the same, however, and is never changed because some of its priests, bishops, or even Popes, sin.

Sexual exploitation, molesting, and the like is grave sin. Those who do it need to be held accountable to God, the Church, and to the civil law. The victims should be treated with compassion and caring and assisted in any reasonable way.

It is also a sin, however, to exploit the sex scandal situation by suing the Church (any Church) to gain lots of money out of greed or revenge. This is exploitation too that hurts many people who are deprived of the Church's resources in charity because of greedy law suits. This motivation has been seen many times in the false claims that have been made against priests and bishops, in the huge settlements that serve only greed and revenge, and in the attitudes of the people who sue and their attorneys. Greed and revenge is sin. Proper justice is okay.

Ultimately, the Church seeks to minister care and healing to the victims and to seek rehabilitation, reconciliation, and forgiveness for the perpetrator. This is what Christ calls us to do.

Oh, that reminds me, about the lie that once a molester always a molester. That is another media invention. The FACT is that after a sex offender is released from prison they are the LEAST likely to commit another crime compared to ANY other criminal.

That has been found in study after study after study for more than forty years. The most recent study was in 2003 by the Department of Justice that confirms this fact.

Bottom line: get the facts and do not presume as true the propaganda in the popular media.

By the way, while I am thinking of it, to offer another example of how incompetent the media is in "reporting" anything, let alone anything about the Church -- In 1991 I watched a speech on C-Span of President Bush (the 1st) concerning the first war in the Gulf. A couple of hours later the Evening News was broadcast. I do not remember which Network, but it would have been either NBC or CBS. I was watching the network news with my father. The newscaster reported on the President's speech. What the news anchor reported was an outright lie. I looked over at my father and told him that I saw that speech live and unedited on C-Span a couple hours earlier and what President Bush said was NOTHING like what the Evening News reported.

Do not trust the popular media to report what the calendar date is accurately let alone anything to do with religion, and especially not when it concerns the Catholic Church. -Bro. Ignatius Mary OLSM
This morning I turned on my computer and read on the main page, 'New Scandal Rocks the Catholic Church'. I asked myself "What now?"


An article appeared about a journalist for NRC Handelsblad in The Netherlands by the name of Joep Dohmen who did a report about some 10 teenage boys who were castrated during the 1950s by the Dutch Roman Catholic Church. According to the story, they were castrated in Catholic hospitals to treat their homosexuality and also as punishment for telling on the priests who had molested them.

It was very hurtful to read some of the comments by posters on the internet who depicted the Catholic Church as an evil organization. There were posts about a BBC report about thousands of babies being stolen from Catholic hospitals in Spain over a period of four decades and sold to devout Catholic couples who couldn't have children. All of this was done with the approval of the clergy there and the real parents were lied to making them believe that their babies died after childbirth. A 'Clinica San Ramón' in Madrid was mentioned as one of those hospitals.

The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland were also mentioned by one of the posters and the abuse of the women who worked there by the nuns running these laundries.

What are we as practicing Catholics supposed to say when non Catholic friends bring up these horrible stories? All of this is very embarrassing when I try to defend my faith. -Anthony

http://oswc.org/stmike/qa/fs/viewanswer.asp?QID=2121

March 20, 2012

There are a couple of issues to consider when dealing with situations like this:

1) The media never reports on the Church accurately. The media exaggerates, misinterprets, slants the report, or outright lies on any report concerning the Church. I mean by this, that this happens with 100% of the reports on the Church by non-Catholic media. There is always some aspect that is not accurate in some way.

Thus, news reports are never to be trusted to be accurate and unbiased when the subject is the Church.

2) An example of this bias are headlines like, "Catholic Church Castrated Boys". The Catholic Church has done no such thing. Mutilation is a grave sin. It is not the Catholic Church that does these things, it is the sins of individual members of the Church, such as particular bishops, priests, brothers, sisters, or laity. These people are violating Church teaching not carrying out Church teaching.

I know for a fact that the media likes to distort information about the Church. A few years ago a reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times called me. She noticed that we had resources in our Deliverance Counseling training program from a priest in Chicago. This priest had been convicted of molesting a 13 year old boy. She asked me if I knew this. I said that I didn't.

The reporter then asked if we were going to discontinue using this priest's teaching tapes because of his conviction. I replied that the decision on that is up to our board, but that we would not stop using the priest's material just because he was convicted. I explained that a man's legacy is not defined by the mistakes he makes, even a crime, and that fact does not diminish the good teaching that he did. After all, if Hitler were to say 1+1=2, is he not correct even though he is Hitler?

The reporter didn't seem to like my answer. She referred to this priest as a pedophile. I said, "Wait a minute. Didn't you say he molested a 13 year old? That means he is ...." She interrupted me saying, "I know, he is a Hebephile."

This discussion proves that these reporters know the difference between a Pedophile (preference for pre-pubescent children), and a Hebephile (preference pubescent children to 14 years olds), and a Ephebophile (preference for teenagers 15-19) but do not care about misleading the public — using the term pedophile sells more papers, of course.

Even if the facts are accurate it does not mean the story is true. The film with Sally Feld and Paul Newman, Absence of Malice, illustrates this point. A reporter writes a story about a businessman. While the information was technically accurate, the reporter presented the information in such a way that led readers to jump to the wrong conclusions.

This has become a mainstay of the alleged "journalism" of today.

Back in 1991 during the Gulf War I watched a speech on CPAN by President Bush. About a hour later NBC reported on the speech during the Evening News. What was reported was an utter lie. I turned to my father and said, "That was a lie. I saw the speech live on CPAN and President Bush did not say what Tom Brokaw just reported. Of course, few people would realize this distortion unless they say the speech live on CPAN.

The media are all whores. They are after what sells papers or garners ratings, or they are after propaganda to their own biases, but what they are not after is the truth.

3) There is nothing that some individual bishop, priest, religious, or laymen has done that is not done in other organizations and communities. This is not an excuse. These stories are heinous. Rather, we need to keep this in perspective.

For example, a studies have shown that children who are molested by professionals are most molested by mental health professionals. Psychiatrist are the worse, followed by Psychologists, and then Social Workers. Of children molested by professionals 66% of the cases involve those three professions. Clergy of all stripes represent 11% of cases.

Catholic Priests are the least likely to molest. Less than 1-1/2 percent of priests in the U.S. have been convicted of molesting. Again, this is not to excuse those Catholics, but to put into perspective the issues.

There is also molesting, a lot of it, among teachers. Non-Catholic orphanages are notorious for abuse. Charles Dickens wrote about non-Catholic orphanages.

There was a time in which the practice of mutilation was extensive in mental hospitals. In fact, mental patients and the disabled were experimented upon by the U.S. Government many years ago.

There are plenty of horror stories to go around and plenty of dirty hands.

The point is that there is no excuse for such evil behavior by anyone. Such things do happen. But, these actions are a violation of Church teaching.

Human beings are flawed and sinful by nature. Catholics are no different. Catholics sin. That is a "dah" moment. But, the individual sins of even a bishop does not represent the Church.

An illustration of the nonsense of this is seen by considering a relative who is a thief. Does that mean that the whole family approved of the thievery? Richard Nixon committed a crime of covering-up the Watergate burglary. Does that indict the entire United States?

Well, neither does the sins of individuals, even that of Popes, indict the whole Church. Those who believe that are hypocrites because they do not apply that standard to all groups.

Thus, the answer to those who ask about these horror stories is that everyone sins, including Catholic clergy and religious. Those religious, priests, or bishops involved behaved in violation of Church teaching. They sinned against their victims, they sinned against the Church, and they sinned against God. As such, they will be held accountable before God.

Their sins, however, do not represent the Church any more than Nixon's actions represented the entire United States, any more than Uncle John's criminal acts represent the whole family.

With that said, these stories are horrific. Those who have committed criminal acts need to be prosecuted no matter who they are. But, none of this indicts the Church herself.

We need to pray for the victims and for the perpetrators of these evil acts. -Bro. Ignatius Mary OLSM

I know someone who was taught at an all-boys Catholic Elementary boarding school by Religious Nuns in the 1960's and 70's in Quebec. These Nuns screamed at the kids, used excessive and frequent corporal punishment, took the kids' possessions away from them with no explanation, and were generally mean and miserable.

I have other friends who had the same experience in regular Catholic schools in other provinces. Then there's the residential schools!

I never know how to answer people who ask how a Catholic Nun could do such things. Do you have any sort of explanation that will help me to practice apologetics and give a sound explanation for this?

Also, this same friend went to an all-boys Catholic high school where priests were the teachers, and the same sorts of things happened. The principal of the school (a religious brother) was murdered by his homosexual lover! And his parish priest had sexual relations on a regular basis with the wife of one of his parishioners! I love our Nuns and Priests, and I love the Catholic faith, but I have to admit that this is a very difficult one to answer to!! I know that these Nuns and priests are individuals, and that individuals can make bad choices and act against their vocation and against the teachings of the Catholic Church.

But I would like to know if there is any specific incident from this time period, or any information you can give me that will help me to both understand and explain it to others who have lost their faith in the Catholic Church because of these incidents. -Greta

http://oswc.org/stmike/qa/fs/viewanswer.asp?QID=2155

June 9, 2012

The best advice I can give you is to walk away from the anti-Catholics. It is not worth the argument. Besides, St. Paul specifically admonishes that we are to avoid unproductive argumentation.

But, as far as these accusations go, yes there was some of this happening back then. But, this was no different than at most secular private and boarding schools.

Such disciplinary measures were common in those days. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the Catholic Church in particular.

As to abuse, sexual or otherwise, some of that happened, but more abuse, including sexual abuse, took place in secular schools. That is no excuse for Catholic schools, but we need to consider this in perspective. Right now the Catholic sex abuse scandal is being replaced by the Public School teacher's sex abuse scandal.

As recently reported by the Catholic League:

Today attention has turned to the public schools where sexual abuse is still rampant, as well as to elite private schools such as Horace Mann in the Bronx; the Orthodox Jewish community is currently facing dozens of cases. Still, it is old cases involving priests that garner most of the press: in Philadelphia, Lynne Abraham, the D.A. who started the grand jury hearings over a decade ago, never once investigated other religions, though she was explicitly asked to do so. Her bias is palpable.

In all of these institutions, homosexuals account for a disproportionate share of the abuse, yet it is almost never reported.

As for Catholic Priests, most were homosexuals molesting teenagers (which is not pedophilia, but rather Hebephilia). Between 1950 - 2002, 4,392 priests were accused which amounts to approximately 4% of the 109,694 priests in active ministry during that time. (This is priests who were accused, not that were guilty).

The allegations were substantiated for 1,872 priests and unsubstantiated for 824 priests. They were thought to be credible for 1,671 priests and not credible for 345 priests. (John Jay Report) Thus, the percentages are more like 1-2% of priest were guilty.

The percentages are higher in other non-Catholic institutions.

The highest instances of professionals’ molesting children are in the mental health profession. Of the cases involving professionals 66% of the offenders are psychiatrists, psychologists, and social works (in that order).

The greatest percentages of offenders against children are with family members and friends of the family. In fact, my own girls were molested by friends of my ex-wife.

The sex scandal crisis is over in the Catholic Church. "In the last three years, there has been an average of 7 new credible accusations made against over 40,000 priests," reports the Catholic League.

The bottom line is that it has always been the case that it was safer to leave one's child in care of a priest, religious, etc. than it was any other educational or orphan institution. -Bro. Ignatius Mary OLSM

First, I want to start with telling you that I have been reading your blog for over two years now and find that you are very respectful, intelligent, and genuine. My comments or questions today are not directed at you. I have written to you on two different occasions asking questions about why domestic violence/sexual assault shelters that I have worked at have had hauntings. I am a psychologist working with victims of abuse, 95% of my clients have been sexually abused as children. I have worked with sexual abuse survivors for over 5 years. These individuals, as adults, are in such psychological, emotional, and spiritual pain... pain that, even with therapy, will last a life time and may control their lives until they die.

While at work today, I found articles in the news regarding comments made by Father Benedict Groeschel regarding sexual abuse. I became enraged at his comments. Here are some articles that are currently reporting on this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195670/Outrage-friars-claims-teenage-boys-seduce-priests-religious-sex-abuse-cases.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/father-benedict-groeschel-teens-seduce-priests_n_1840900.html

He is prominent in the Catholic Church ministry and many people look to him for spiritual advice. I have watched his Sunday evening show on EWTN and have at least one book of his.

{Paragraph deleted by moderator}

I have read many posts/answers you have written that state these few priests do not represent the church and that the priests who sexually abuse are about 1% of all priests. I completely accepted this and understood where you were coming from. But at this point, after hearing about this man's comments, this is an institutional problem. I am so sick of the excuses.

I believe that evil has taken over the Vatican, the body of the church, and the leadership. The continued struggle for power and the apathy with criminal behavior within its leadership is sick.

I am so heartbroken with the apathy and the rationalization, that I have lost all faith in the Roman Catholic Church. I feel that the people (who are the true body of the Church) have been cheated, lied to, manipulated, and treated like idiots.

I would like to hear your thoughts on Father Groeschel and about evil slowly overtaking the Roman Catholic Church.

This was the final nail in the coffin for me. I am converting to the Russian Eastern Orthodox church. I have dragged my feet on this, but I am confident with my decision now. At least the OCA quickly forced Metropolitan Jonah out when he hid a priest's rape allegation. -Hope

http://oswc.org/stmike/qa/sw/viewanswer.asp?QID=1681

August 30, 2012

I am sorry to hear that you have lost hope. But, your loss of hope is not based on facts, but upon pride and hurt. To leave the Catholic Church places your soul at risk. The Catholic Church is perfect; it is only its members who are not. The reason you have lost faith in the Catholic Church is because you are looking at man, at the storms, instead of looking at Jesus.

St. Peter could actually walk on water when Jesus beckoned him to come. It was only when St. Peter took his eyes off Jesus and instead looked at the storms around him that he sank. Keep your eyes on Jesus, not on the sins of men.

Keep in mind that you are a sinner, too. What did Jesus say to the sex offender? The woman accused of adultery? After writing down some things in the sand and everyone left, Jesus turned to the sinner and said "Go and sin no more."

Sex offenses, which almost all people are sex offenders (e.g., fornication, masturbation, lust, adultery, concubinage, etc., these are all sex offenses/crimes), can be forgiven. Who are we to condemn them when Jesus did not?

To judge the whole Church for the sins of a very, very few is grave sin itself.

The Church is not responsible for the sins of its members or even of its bishops. The Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded and Jesus does not authorize you or me or anyone to abandon his Church. If you leave you will be sinning and risking your soul.

There is no sin "slowly overtaking the Church." If that were true, then God is a liar. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. God says that. If that is not true then God is a liar. God is not a liar. Satan is the father of all lies. Satan is the ultimate instigator behind all people who leave the Church. The sex scandal is over. Those cases involved situations mostly from around 1950-1985. And, as you quoted, maybe around 1% were guilty of anything. I will bet you that you have family members or ancestors who were corrupt, committed crimes and such. Does that mean your whole family is corrupt, that you should divorce and disown your entire family because of those few? No.

As far as Fr. Groeschel, I should state that I have a passing acquaintance with him. I found him a good man and a good priest. I have, however, not always agreed with his psychological assessments.

You need to keep in mind that the Huffington Post and the Daily Mail are organizations that hate the Catholic Church. They are not credible sources about anything concerning the Catholic Church. I have read both of their reports. The first thing I noticed is that they quote Father Groeschel out-of-context and with a bias like a drooling dog happy to find meat to bite into.

Father Groeschel’s mental capacities have waned. He did not mean to imply that a child is at fault for his own abuse. The adult, even an adult with mental problems, is always the one at fault. Taking his words out-of-context makes it appear that he is blaming the teenagers. He is not saying that. Such jumping to conclusions is a sin. It is called rash judgment. The Church teaches that:

2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way: