Dubeque

Myth #1 - Catholic priests are more likely to be pedophiles than other groups of men.

Roman Catholic Bishops, Priests, and Deacons are vowed to a life of perfect and perpetual continence.
(canon 276 CIC83) This is the lens with which we should view the following facts from the John Jay Center
for Criminal Justice Study commissioned by the Bishops. Since 1950, 4,392 Priests and ten Bishops have
resigned or been removed for credible accusations of childhood sexual abuse. 22% of the allegations self
reported by the bishops were for children under the age of ten and 6% of the victims were under the age
of seven. (John Jay pg.9) I know of no other religious denomination, organization, or group in the world
who is reporting these horrific results.

Myth #2 - The celibate state of priests leads to pedophilia.

Three different men employed by the Church in the twentieth century, the Church's own psychiatrists and
psychologists were ignored by the Hierarchy and appear to support this thesis. I would go further and say
that celibacy itself violates the natural law, betrays revealed faith and reason, and leads to numerous
sexual perversions including pedophilia.

Beginning with Reverend Thomas Verner Moore in 1936, the Church has been attempting to understand
the crime of stuprum and other psychological infirmities of the clergy in the discipline of psychology.
Moore first studied the insanity rates amongst catholic clergy and found them higher than the general
population. Further, Moore also studied and published on detection measures of Pre-psychotics who apply
for admission to the Priesthood or Religious Communities.

In November 1971, Conrad W. Baars, M.D. of the Mayo Clinic presented a paper to the Synod of
Bishops meeting in Rome titled, "The Role of the Church in the Causation, Treatment, and Prevention of
the Crisis in the Priesthood". The results were that only 10%-15% of Priests attain maturation and
20%-25% have serious psychiatric difficulties. Also during 1971, the Holy See made the Servants of the
Paraclete (theservants.org) an order of Pontifical rite.

The third church therapist who was ignored is Reverend Michael Petersen of the Saint Luke Institute
(sli.org). Petersen along with Thomas Doyle, O.P. and Raymond Mouton, Esq. submitted a report to the
Bishop for the 1985 Collegeville, MN. meeting that the scandal of pedophilia was going to explode if the
Hierarchy did not attend to the victims.

Myth #3 - Married clergy would make pedophilia and other forms of sexual misconduct go away.

The track record of the Hierarchy enforcing the discipline of clergy in sexual matters is riddled with holes.
The bishops first met at Elvira in 309 AD, published in "Power and Sexuality", to discuss and legislate
against the sexual abuse of children by clerics. The Pope was also given a detailed report by Saint Peter
Damian in 1051 AD, "the Book of Gomorrah", detailing the graphic evidence of the sexual abuse of
children. In the end, marriage will not change the current situation because the Hierarchy has not been
able to enforce the legislation and delicts already on the books.

Myth #4 - Clerical celibacy was a medieval invention.

Celibacy was idealized in the early church but never officially enforced. Beginning in 1123 AD at the
council of Worms, Pope Calixtus II promulgated a canon that impeded married persons from being
ordained but more importantly, the marriages contracted by clerics were declared invalid and had no
effect. Pope Calixtus then ordered all married priests to abandon their wives. The record indicates the
medieval period did institutionalize celibacy. The first Lateran council proclaimed that a male in Holy
Orders attained an indelible mark and celibacy was an essential element of that priestly character.

Myth #5 - Female clergy would help solve the problem.

The fact is that we will never really know because the current teaching of the Church is that any layman or
women is not capable of holding an ecclesiastical office.

Myth #6 - Homosexuality isn't connected to pedophilia.

Time will tell as we prosecute these cases over the next thirty years. However, since most priests are
heterosexual my nature, reason dictates that the majority of victims will be female.

Myth #7 - The Catholic hierarchy has done nothing to address pedophilia.

Close to the truth. The Bishops have done nothing out of fear it will hurt their image. The Hierarchy has
never enforced the crimes of stuprum, sexual abuse of minors, sodomy, solicitation in the confessional,
bestiality, and all the other crimes by clerics noted in canon 2359.2 of the 1917 code of canon law. The
Hierarchy has had the evidence of the sexual abuse of minors, the knowledge of recidivism, and the
complete power over the clergy yet they have done nothing to stop pedophilia. How many Bishops have
turned in their priests to Law enforcement? The cover up of the sexual abuse of minorsl is necessary in
the Hierarchies worldview to maintain the image of the church as the perfect society.

Myth #8 - The Church's teaching on sexual morality is the real problem, not pedophilia.

The sexual morality of the clergy as evidenced in the thousands of sexual abuse cases across the world,
look at Ireland, leads one to question the moral maturity of the clergy. If the clergy are emotionally
immature it follows that they too are morally immature in regards to the sexual abuse of a child. There has
been a long standing cry by the laity for the Hierarchy to concentrate less on the morality of the bedroom
and more on the boardroom. The evidence of the Stuprum cases is cause for the Hierarchy to concentrate
first on the morality in the rectory and less on the family home.

Myth #9 - Catholic journalists have ignored the pedophile problem.

Roman Catholic journalists, like priests, are in a difficult spot. They are paid and owe obedience to the
Hierarchy who are deathly afraid of negative press and scandal. If a Roman Catholic journalist was to
fully plumb the depths of the scandal, they would be warned and then relieved of duty. The Roman
Catholic journalist who studies and searches below the surface is like the nail that sticks out, they are
hammered down.

Myth #10 - Requiring celibacy limits the number of men as candidates for the priesthood, resulting in a
high number of sexually unbalanced priests.

This is the age old question, nature or nurture? The question we should be asking, noting that the
Hierarchy has never successfully enforced the rule of Celibacy: is the Hierarchy by omitting their duty to
enforce the laws of the Church attracting a group of sexually unbalanced priests and endangering all
children at Roman Catholic Institutions?