Since it seems some of the old boys now trying to revive the tired old blame-the-gays “explanation” for the crisis of sexual abuse in the Catholic church apparently didn’t get the following memo from headquarters, it’s time to reissue it again:
From: John Jay College of Criminal Justice
To: U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference (USCCB)
Date: 17 November 2009
Re: Findings of Our Extensive Study about Catholic Sexual Abuse: Gay Priests Not the Problem
In November 2009, Margaret Smith and Karen Terry of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice reported to the U.S. Catholic bishops at their annual meeting the findings of John Jay’s independent study of the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic church from 1950 to 2002.
Their findings?
Their findings?
What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse. At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse.
This from the people the bishops commissioned by a Catholic lay board and funded by the bishops to do an independent study of the parameters of the abuse crisis in the church. People who have more knowledge of those parameters than almost anyone other than the Vatican, the bishops, and watchdog groups of survivors of Catholic clerical sexual abuse.
[W]e are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse.
And: [W]e do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse.
And: [W]e do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse.
When asked whether barring gay candidates from the priesthood would stop the abuse, Smith told the bishops, “If that exclusion were based on the fact that that person would be more probable than any other candidate to abuse, we do not find that at this time.”
That was in November 2009. From headquarters.
And so why are the old boys trying now, in early April 2010, to revive this already exploded explanatory meme, which diverts our attention from the real problem we ought to be using all of our energy to resolve, the fact of ongoing child abuse within our church and the fact of its ongoing cover-up by pastoral authorities right to the top of the church?
And so why are the old boys trying now, in early April 2010, to revive this already exploded explanatory meme, which diverts our attention from the real problem we ought to be using all of our energy to resolve, the fact of ongoing child abuse within our church and the fact of its ongoing cover-up by pastoral authorities right to the top of the church?
Perhaps diversion, and poisoning an important and necessary conversation, is the name of the game here. And if that is the game being played, then it’s an exceptionally evil one, given a) the vulnerability of victims, b) the heinous effects of childhood sexual abuse on their lives, c) the magnitude both of the abuse and its cover-up, and d) the need for a solution that puts victims first.
Children first. Victims first. Not the church and its leaders.
