A five-year, $1.8 million study – funded largely by the church – has concluded that widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests was not due to the church's policy of placing many forced-celibate, sexually frustrated men together and giving them unassailable power over children, but to "the social upheaval of the 1960s," for which they were mysteriously unprepared. As to gay priests contributing to the epidemic: the rates of abuse actually went down when more gay men started joining the priesthood. Glad we got that cleared up, so the church can go on doing what it's long done, which is inhabiting an amoral planet out of time and space that turns a blindly unthinking eye to obvious cause and effect. Funny, though: We don't remember Abbie Hoffman celebrating pedophilia.
Recommended Off-site Links:
Study Identifies Culture Shift as Root Cause for Catholic Clergy Sex Crimes – Lisa Wangsness (The Boston Globe, May 18, 2011).
Homosexuality Did Not Cause Church Child Abuse Scandal, Report Says – Jessica Geen (PinkNews.com, May 19, 2011).
Causes of Catholic Abuse Scandal Pinpointed by Study – David Gibson (Religion News Service via The Huffington Post, May 18, 2011).
Church Report Cites Social Tumult in Priest Scandals – Laurie Goodstein (New York Times, May 17, 2011).
Sexual License of 1960s Does Not Excuse Pedophile Priests – Shmuley Boteach (The Huffington Post, May 19, 2011).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Bill Donohue's Homophobic Claims Refuted by Bishops' Study
Donohue's "Blame the Gays" Tactic Refuted by John Jay Study Researcher
Blaming the Gays
Quote of the Day – April 1, 2010
Report: Homosexuality No Factor in Abusive Priests
An Abuse Survivor Speaks on the Scapegoating of Homosexuality
Archbishop Weakland, the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal and Homophobia
The Catholic League's New Poster Boy?
What Is It That Ails You?
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