A new study from the Ruth Institute has demonstrated a high correlation between the proportion of homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood and the incidence of sexual abuse by the clergy.
The study conducted by Father Paul Sullins, a Catholic University sociologist, found that the percentage of homosexual men in the priesthood has risen sharply. The study also found a disturbing increase in the number of sexual-misconduct reports lodged against priests since 2010, “amidst signs of complacency by Church leaders.” The incidence of new charges (as opposed to charges involving alleged misconduct in past years) is now nearly as high as in the 1970s.
An earlier study by the John Jay College, commissioned by the US bishops’ conference, had denied a connection between homosexuality and clerical abuse. But the John Jay study had not examined the change in the number of homosexuals entering the priesthood. Father Sullins, using data from the same report, shows a very strong statistical correlation between a rise in the proportion of homosexuals in the priesthood and the number of abuse charges.
The rise in the proportion of homosexual priests has been striking, the Ruth Institute study found. In the 1950s, the homosexual presence within the American Catholic priesthood was estimated to be roughly twice that of the overall population; by the 1980s, it was eight times the level of the overall population. To buttress this estimate, the study notes that the number of young priests who reported encountering a homosexual subculture in the seminary doubled between the 1960s and 1980s.
Father Sullins estimates that if the proportion of homosexual priests had remained that the level of the 1950s, the surge in abuse might not have occurred and “at least 12,000 fewer children, mostly boys, would have suffered abuse.” In an interview with the National Catholic Register, the priest-sociologist acknowledged that his report will be criticized as hostile to homosexuals. But he said: “I would say that if it’s a choice between being called homophobic and allowing more young boys to be abused, I would choose to be at risk for being called homophobic.”
Full story at Catholic Culture.
It is already acknowledged that active and pervasive homosexuality among the clergy, even reaching into the College of Cardinals, is the root of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
Tell us something that we do notvalready know.
Everybody knew this is true even though the bishops and professional left-wing Catholics tried to persuade us that it wasn’t. Fr. James Martin is going to have a hissy fit that the truth about homosexual priests is coming out. He’ll say it’s fear mongering.
I wish the Bishops Conference and the Holy Father would tell it like it is……they are still stating that it is chid abuse (as in prior to the John Jay Report of 2002) and not admitting it is about HOMOSEXUALITY!!!!!!
And the Ruth Institute might be ??? Not a word of identification in the article.
Rule One of Statistics. Correlation does NOT imply causation. Causation is established through separate reasoning.
They are online.
Rule Two: 2+2=4
A very large number of Catholic priests have been caught having sex with post-pubescent, sexually mature teenage boys.
That is called “homosexual activity”.
How is that for “separate reasoning”?
On the Ruth Institute website, there is a form where you can have them send you the data that they used to make the correlation.
There are many problems with this so-called “study”. First, Mike M is correct: in statistics correlation does not mean causation. Second, note the use of “estimates” in this “study”: what is the source of data for homosexual priests in the 1950’s? It is highly unlikely this type of information was collected in seminaries during the 1950’s. In God we trust…all others must have data!
No one is going to believe a study that attempts to determine the level of homosexual priests going back decades. What you end up measuring is how OPEN people are about their sexual orientation, not what their actual sexual orientation is. Besides that, as others have pointed out, correlation is not causation.
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”.
What do you need, to see the reality of this situation?
Well, I’m actually working through the “study”. Are you?
It seems that they are saying that there is a very sharp upturn in homosexual priests. OK, I’m skeptical that priests in 1950 actually would be willing to tell anyone if they were gay, and this is a “self report study”, fater all. But they aren’t saying there is an equivalently sharp upturn in abuse cases. If anything, the data seems to disprove the notion that more gay priests results in proportionately more abuse. I’m still reading, but that’s my takeaway so far.
Takeaways:
The percentage of homosexual men in the priesthood has risen sharply. (There are not supposed to be ANY.)
There is an increase in reports of sexual misconduct by priests since 2010; almost as many as in 1970s.
How do they know that the percentage of homosexual men in the priesthood has risen?
The only thing in this article that addresses that are statements about the difference between the 1960s and the 1980s.
But the point is even without correlating the two, the Catholic Church has problems. I would like to see the breakdown of what the reports of sexual misconduct were. Were they homosexual or heterosexual? Were they actual misconduct with individuals or the finding of porn on the priests computer? If with individuals,…
The “breakdown” is 81% same sex, i.e., homosexual. If it walks and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
The vast majority of gay priests don’t molest. Quack quack.
The vast majority of gay priests don’t molest because they have consensual sexual activity with adult men. Only 50% of all priests are celibate at any given moment.
We all know the truth, by now! Homosexuality and gay criminal clergy sex abuse crimes are even a problem in the Vatican! So– what is the Catholic Church really going to do about this?? And Fr James Martin, S.J.– is so close to the Pope- We can’t expect much!
No, we can’t. And it’s not an accident that Martin is close to the pope – they’re both Jesuits. Archbishop Vigano just called out the “deviant wing” (as he delicately put it) of the Jesuits, stating that it now constitutes a majority of the Order. Bishop McGrath of San Jose just got slammed for leaving out 11 Jesuit abusers from his disclosure report – he said that was appropriate because they were members of an Order (never mind they were under his jurisdiction). And of course the Jesuits order has paid out over a quarter billion dollars in abuse settlements, and their colleges have succumbed to feminism, homosexualism and transexualism, judging by the proliferation of gay events, groups and complete absence of Catholic orthodoxy.
Oh my. It’s getting worse than what we have thought. A prayer barrage is a necessity that we ought to do.
This is what happens when men who have no vocation to be priests become priests. Homosexual men are meant to be lay men.