Facts About Pedophile Priests

A reader asked for the sources for a couple of my statements in a post recently about celibacy and sex abuse. Namely the assertion that most abuse is perpetrated by married men not single men–therefore marriage for Catholic priests will not solve the sex abuse problem.

The reader also questioned my assertion that most of the cases of sex abuse by priests were carried out by homosexuals, and that marriage was unlikely to solve their problem also.

I should therefore point out that just because 80% of the priestly sex abuse cases were homosexual in nature does not imply that homosexuals are necessarily more likely to be child sex abusers than heterosexuals, or that homosexuality necessarily makes a man more likely to sexually abuse children. My point was simply that marriage would not be the answer for pedophiles who were also homosexuals.

Here is an interesting article from Psychology Today by Thomas Plante PhD which summarizes his findings about sexual abuse by Catholic priests, and which supports my statements. Plante is an academic, a professional psychologist, the author of umpteen books including several on the clergy sex abuse, and he also quotes the most extensive study on the subject, the Jay report. A reader also recommends Philip Jenkins’ books Pedophiles and Priests and Moral Panic as excellent studies for those who wish to learn more about the problem of priestly sex abuse. For more documentation and facts about the priest sex abuse scandal visit this site.