Gays, priest sex abuse: Is there any connection?

The Boston Globe ^ | 10.17.05 | Carey Goldberg

[tuesday afternoon]

If the Catholic Church wants to prevent sexual abuse by priests, several abuse experts said, there are better ways to do it than by trying to bar gay men from the clergy.

The church recently began checking American seminaries for ''evidence of homosexuality," and the pope is widely expected to ban actively gay men from taking holy orders.

But it will be tricky to cull gays from the priesthood, the abuse experts said this month. And it would be more effective -- and more humane -- to target likely abusers rather than all gays.

''There's no adequate way to screen out homosexuality," said Martin P. Kafka, a psychiatrist at Harvard's McLean Hospital. ''We don't have any lab tests."

-SNIP-

Still, when adults molest children past puberty, they tend to follow their sexual orientation. When the victims are older, straight men tend to molest girls and gay men molest boys. According to one survey, two-thirds of the victims were 12 or older when the abuse began.

-SNIP-

Furthermore, he said, he argued, ''If you have a policy of excluding homosexuals, all the applicants to the seminaries who are homosexual will just lie."

-SNIP-

And in current-day America, he added, gay people are much likelier to acknowledge and accept their sexual orientation, so they may present far lower risks than the repressed types of the old days

[Rudder]

Most male pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles. Anyone care to dispute that?

[ElkGroveDan]

''There's no adequate way to screen out homosexuality," said Martin P. Kafka, a psychiatrist at Harvard's McLean Hospital. ''We don't have any lab tests."

Aw it's easy. I know one when I see one.

[Burkean]

I don't think it's accurate to say that most male pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles. The only reliable observation according to USA Today is that most pedophiles are male.

When you factor in the statistic that one out of four women are molested before the age of 18, whereas one out of ten men are molested before the age of 18, obviously more girls are being molested than boys. That would seem to negate the idea that most pedophiles are homosexual, since more pedophiles seem to be targeting girls than boys.

[GatorGirl]

Huh?

What's this about John the Baptist? His father was not a married Catholic priest--he was a Jew!

[Rudder]

Change the age of the victims to "younger than 10 yrs old" and see what you get.

[A. Pole]

I don't think it's accurate to say that most male pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles. The only reliable observation according to USA Today is that most pedophiles are male.

Majority of abuse victims IN QUESTION are males or not?

[Burkean]

I would assume if you changed your victim profile to under ten that would veer the statistics even further toward so-called heterosexual pedophile (if you can call a person having sex with an under ten year old girl heterosexual). Isn't the argument that priests are usually interested in post-pubescent boys 14 to 16 years old?

[DBeers]

If the Catholic Church wants to prevent sexual abuse by priests, several abuse experts said, there are better ways to do it than by trying to bar gay men from the clergy.

Listening to the "experts" was part of the problem...

The moral relative "experts" have no more credibility than ANY heretic that contradicts and contravenes Church teaching...

[DBeers]

Rome disagrees with you. There is ZERO chance that Benedict XVI is going to start suspending celibate homosexual priests

You do understand that celibate is unmarried?

[sinkspur]

Most male pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles. Anyone care to dispute that?

The statistics do not bear that out.

[sinkspur]

You do understand that celibate is unmarried?

All right. Benedict XVI is not going to start suspending chaste homosexual priests.

[A CA Guy]

Well most pedophiles go after are men going after the same sex (male) but younger.

That is an even more perverse form of homosexuality, so yes, ban it from the priesthood.

[Rudder]

I wasn't really directing my statements toward priests, per se. But, having worked for too many years (at Johns Hopkins Hosp. in a clinic, diagnosing and treating with medroxyprogesterone acetate,) with pedophiles, most (90+%) were males and most (90+%) preferred male children under 10 yrs old. I'm not confident in the data about priests preferring near or post pubescent males. We saw a good number of priests and all lamented the fact those who were readily available were altar boys---"too old," they said. But, hey, beggars can't be choosey.

I don't mean to be flippant, but that was their attitude.

[narses]

"All right. Benedict XVI is not going to start suspending chaste homosexual priests."

So Deacon, how is it that you KNOW this to be true?

Do you think that homosexual priests ought to be left in public ministry?

[DBeers]

The fact that it has taken this long to issue some sort of document about homosexuals in the priesthood would seem to indicate that there will not be an absolute ban.

Everything old is new again?

• Religiosorum Institutio

  30. Those To Be Excluded; Practical Directives

  Advantage to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.

Additionally, for any interested -a Vatican statement more recent than "Religiosorum Institutio" the 1961 document. Relevant article I read a while ago:

• Clear Vatican Statement against Ordination of Homosexuals

  -excerpt:

  VATICAN, Dec 5, 02 (CWNews.com) -- A leading Vatican official has confirmed the Church's position that men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained.

  In a letter dated May 16, 2002, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez-- who was, at the time, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship-- said: "Ordination to the diaconate or priesthood of persons with homosexual tendencies is absolutely unadvisable and imprudent, and from a pastoral point of view, extremely risky." The letter by Cardinal Medina Estevez, which was a response to a query from a bishop, has now been published in the November-December edition of a bulletin put out by the Congregation for Divine Worship.

[narses]

How is this then Deacon: most of the Priests accused of abuse have abused members of the same sex. Care to claim that "The statistics do not bear that out"?

[sinkspur]

The poster didn't say that.

He said that "most male pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles."

The incidences of male-on-female pedophilia are higher.

[narses]

"The poster didn't say that."

That's right Deacon - I did. You disagree? Or you concede that in the case of priest abusers, the sex of the victims was way more often male? In other words, the priest abusers are deviant homosexuals and dangers that ought to be eliminated from the active ministry.

[saradippity]

What kind of pedophiles were you treating at Johns Hopkins?

Was there a reason that the pedophiles being treated at Johns Hopkins did not reflect the statistics commonly found vis a vis girl/boy victims?

And what did the drug you mentioned do to them or for them?

[Rudder]

The incidences of male-on-female pedophilia are higher.

Well, that depends on what is called pedophilia. One incidence does not a pedophile make.

Pedophilia is the preference of having sexual contact with children. There are reports of drunken uncles molestiing their nieces, etc., etc. But a true pedophile engages, virtually exclusively, with sexual contact with children. In the latter case, male pedophiles are to a far greater extent homosexual pedophiles.

My case load at Johns Hopkins was due to referrals by law enforcement. All the pedophiles were homosexual pedophiles, 4 (out of several hundred) were female. I then moved to Ohio and handled the entire SE quadrant of the state---Same story.

I've been on the front line of this issue for many years in both clinical and research settings and I can say with certainty: Most male pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles.