“My sense is the percentage of homosexuals hasn’t changed much.”
My sense is the opposite. I think the reduction in reported abuse is a sign of that. I don’t buy that the homosexuals policed themselves, or that anything was done by the leadership. I just think there was less of a reason for them to join the priesthood, especially post-2002 or so when so many became aware of the abuse crisis and the culture embraced them so much that some states made it illegal to discriminate against them and ‘gay marriage’ started to become recognized as an issue.
Not that the current outrage and examination of the older gay leadership and their continuing scandal isn’t needed or a good thing. I hope the greater exposure just keeps rolling.
Freegards
The bishops and clergy may think they’re Lucy, but I’m not playing Charlie Brown.
That the levels of abuse have really fallen is no longer credible, because if the clergy asserts it, the most reasonable conclusion is that it’s a lie.
I personally know of at least one cover-up that came to light only in 2014 that would, if not covered up, increase the count of abuse cases in the 1990s by at least one Church-affiliated abuser, and at least half a dozen priests who actively engaged in the cover-up.
There is no proof that there aren’t thousands more cases like that. And as I said, I’m not Charlie Brown, so “Lucy” isn’t going to get any benefit of the doubt at all here.
The clergy are liars. They have been liars for at least a hundred years. There is no change that indicates they won’t be liars a hundred years from now.
Regardless, though I’m skeptical that the number of historical cases isn’t still increasing rapidly, it really doesn’t matter.
Sodomite clergy are weak, and thus, likely cowards. I have no problem believing that as the secular society tightened the noose on those sodomites screwing 15 year-olds (a tightening that I witnessed personally, as psychotherapists became legally obligated to turn in child abusers to law enforcement), they switched to a slightly older cohort to avoid prison time. It’s a small shift, and rats do what they gotta do to survive. A rat who previously dined on cheddar will eat Swiss if the cheddar becomes too dangerous.
And the stories coming out now about abuse in the seminaries is evidence that the homosexual network in the Church is still in charge, still recruiting fellow sodomites in large numbers, and is still forcing out good men.