Human sexuality, Roman Catholic church,
religious violence, basic religious information

Menu

Sexual and Other Abuse by Religious
Leaders: A "perfect panic"

Overview:

This section deals mainly with sexual abuse of youths and younger children by Christian leaders, primarily from Roman Catholic clergy. Little information is available on the frequency of abuse among clergy in other Christian denominations and in other religions.

What little hard information that is available seems to indicate that:

	Pedophilia (sexual abuse by adults of pre-pubertal children) is lower among North America Catholic clergy than among the general male population.
	Ephbophilia, (the sexual abuse by adults of post-pubertal children under the age of 18) is much more common among North America Catholic clergy than in the general population. It typically takes the form of a male priest sexually abusing a male adolescent.
	The situation appears to be very different in Belgium and perhaps elsewhere in Europe, where most abusing clergy are are ephebophiliacs (adults, usually male, who are sexually attracted to young people about the age of puberty.)
	Sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests could probably be almost halved if women were allowed to be ordained in the church as they are in liberal and mainline Christian denominations and some conservative denominations. However, the pope has repeatedly said that because Jesus chose only men to be his apostles, the Church cannot follow the path of other Christian denomination and make ordination available to any women, presumably because of their XX genetic structure. And so, the Church remains sexist; it discriminates against women now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
	Wherever detailed studies are made, a high leve of physical and sexual abuse in church-run residential schools is uncovered.

Sponsored link.

Topics covered in this section:

This is a moral panic with roots that extend back for many decades.

• Background information:
  • Overview: We suggest that you read these two essays first.
    
    • Part 1:  Introduction; Church and cover up; how common is/was the abuse?
      
      
    • Part 2:  Ephebophilia and/or pedophilia; role of enforced celibacy; role of lawyers; a book
    
    
  • Definitions of some terms related to sexual abuse of children & youth
    
    
  • "Crimen Sollicitationis" -- A secret Vatican document of 1962
    
    
  • Roman Catholic priests with a homosexual orientation
    
    
  • Catholic seminary students with a homosexual orientation
    
    
  • Exclusion of homosexuals from Catholic seminaries
    
    
  • Quotations, a conspiracy theory and resources
    
    
• Allegations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the U.S.:
  • How the current panic surfaced
    
    
  • How many priests sexually abuse minors, and whom do they victimize?
    • Part 1: Overview; media accounts vs. reality; what percent of priests abuse?
      
      
    • Part 2: Number of victims/abusive priest; ages of victims; comparing Catholics with Protestants; Future
      
      
  • How the church initially reacted
    
    
• Further news about child and youth sexual abuse crimes and settlements
  • 2004: Independent survey of abuse
    
    
  • 2005 to 2007: Victim data; destruction of data; financial settlements.
    
    
  • 2009 to 2010-OCT: Other impacts on the church; keeping documents secret; assassination allegation; recent events.
    
    
  • 2010-OCT to 2011-NOV: Philadelphia PA mass charges, Pope claims that pedophilia wasn't considered an "absolute evil"
    
    
  • 2011-NOV to now: Penn State and Catholic Church scandals
    
    
  • 2014: Vatican grilled by UN Committee. Number of Catholic priests defrocked. Archbishop is unsure whether abuse is illegal.
    
    
  • 2015 to 2017: Who/What is Causing Priest Abuse? Priests, Feminists, Abuse Victims...? Cardinal Pell Accused of Child Abuse.
  • Feminists blamed for abuse by priests.
    
    
• 2018: Grand Jury report: Over 300 Catholic priests accused of abusing more than 1,000 children in Pennsylvania. Abuse elsewhere: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

• Allegations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy elsewhere in the world (We only describe the situation in a few countries; the problem is almost certainly more widespread):
• In Ireland
  
  
• In Belgium
  
  
• Elsewhere in Europe
  
  
• The Canadian situation: precursor to American events
  
  
• Allegations of abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses:
  • Church policies and examples of abuse
    
    
  • Reactions by church leaders, members, an advocacy group, etc.
    
    
• Allegations of abuse within other Christian denominations:
  
  • In fundamentalist and other evangelical Christian churches
    
    
• Repressed/recovered memories:
  • The role of repressed/recovered memories
    
    
    • Examples of recovered memories in clergy abuse cases
      
      
    • The role of Theophostic Counseling
      
      
    • Statement by almost 100 experts in the Shanley case
      
      
• Additional information:
  • Interpreting the scandal as a moral panic <<< An important essay
    
    
  • What is the long-term solution?
    
    
  • Books and articles dealing with clergy sexual abuse
    
    

Web ReligiousTolerance.org

Page Translator: This page translator works on Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari browsers only After translating, click on the "show original" button at the top of this page to restore page to English.