"Mr. Malthus" <
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1IT'S NOT ABOUT CATHOLIC PRIESTS
FACT: Catholic priests do not offend at a higher rate than clergy of other
religious denominations or employees of other institutions that deal with
youth.
Read more
Newsweek magazine, April 7, 2010:
"[E]xperts who study child abuse say they see little reason to conclude
that sexual abuse is mostly a Catholic issue. 'We don't see the Catholic
Church as a hotbed of this or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone
else,' said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children .
"Since the mid-1980s, insurance companies have offered sexual misconduct
coverage as a rider on liability insurance, and their own studies indicate
that Catholic churches are not higher risk than other congregations . It's
been that way for decades."
USA Today, June 6, 2010:
"If anyone believes that priests offend at a higher rate than teachers or
non-celibate clergy, then they should produce the evidence on which they are
basing that conclusion. I know of none. Saying 'everybody knows' does not
constitute scientific methodology."
- Dr. Philip Jenkins, Pennsylvania State University.
2STRANGE DAYS INDEED
FACT: The media's frenzied Catholic priest sex abuse storyline stems only
from a historical anomaly, as the vast majority of allegations occurred
during a narrow band of time from the 1960s to the early 1980s. During this
period the Church sent abusive priests to treatment, conforming to the
then-prevailing societal view that offenders could be successfully
rehabilitated but resulting in a high rate of recidivism.
Read more
Catholic Church Abuse Graph 1970-2009
"No one would hold a brain surgeon to today's standard of care for
professional decisions he made in 1970. Yet the decisions made in 1970 by
Catholic bishops, who routinely consulted with mental health professionals
about sick priests, are being judged by today's standards. Today, the
confidence of the mental health community about the likelihood of curing
sexual disorders is far less than it was in 1970."
- L. Martin Nussbaum, "Changing the Rules" (America magazine, 2006)
The Catholic Church was far from alone in its practice years ago of not
calling the police to report suspected abuse. During the 1970's, when the
Church was sending accused priests to psychological treatment, "the criminal
justice system was doing the very same thing with convicted offenders -
sending them to treatment instead of prison."
"From the 1950's to the 1980's, these treatment-based interventions for
sexual criminals were not only enormously prevalent in the United States,
but surveys of ordinary citizens showed that they were enormously popular .
"[T]he science of human sexuality and sexual offending is extraordinarily
young. Virtually all of the information we utilize today regarding the
treatment and supervision of sexual offenders has been discovered since
1985."
- Dr. Monica Applewhite, Ph.D.
According to the 2004 John Jay College report, 149 priests were "serial
abusers" (10+ victims) and accounted for an alarming 26% of all of the abuse
between 1950 and 2002.
Yet these 149 men represent only one-tenth of one percent of all priests who
served in the Catholic Church in the United States between 1950 and 2002.
Most accused priests (56%) have been the subject of only one allegation.
3YESTERDAY'S NEWS: CURRENT ACCUSATIONS AGAINST CATHOLIC PRIESTS ARE VERY
RARE
FACT: Almost all accusations against Catholic priests date from decades ago,
and indeed nearly half of all abuse accusations concern priests who are
already dead. In an institution of 77 million people, contemporaneous
accusations of abuse against Catholic clergy in the United States are very
rare, recently averaging only 8.5 "credible" allegations per year.
Read more
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), the independent
research organization out of Georgetown University, has been tracking abuse
data regarding United States Catholic clergy for several years. CARA issues
annual reports through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB).
According to CARA, here are the numbers of accusations involving a current
minor that were deemed "credible" each year from 2005 to 2010:
Year / # of accusations
2010 8
2009 6
2008 10
2007 4
2006 14
2005 9
Meanwhile, according to government numbers, in 2010 alone, there were 63,527
reported cases of child sexual abuse in the United States.
4THE STORY THE MEDIA WON'T REPORT: THE EPIDEMIC OF ABUSE AND COVER-UPS GOING
ON TODAY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
FACT: The incidence of sexual abuse by teachers in public schools today has
been estimated to be "more than 100 times" that by Catholic priests, and
there is alarming evidence of school officials covering up abuse and failing
to report suspected cases to authorities. Yet the mainstream media has
largely ignored this shocking story while still rehashing decades-old
allegations of abuse by Catholic priests.