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Newsweek: Priests Abuse Children Just Like Anybody Else

by Tommy Christopher | 10:35 am, April 11th, 2010

» 14 comments

Last week, I marveled at the stunning pattern of collective denial that allows the Catholic church to continue to exist in its present form, despite a record of willfully harming children that now traces all the way to Pope Benedict XVI.

Today, I came across the latest example of this, as Newsweek has published an infuriating piece of propaganda (a web exclusive, probably because the paper caught fire every time they tried to commit it to print), designed to mitigate the Catholic church’s vile betrayals by distorting facts and by using the victims’ silence and defenselessness against them.

Let’s take a look at “Mean Men” by Pat Wingert: “The priesthood is being cast as the refuge of pederasts. In fact, priests seem to abuse children at the same rate as everyone else.”

Before I even get started, let’s take their (completely false) premise for granted. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that child molestation would be a whole lot less common among priests? It’s the exact opposite of what a priest is supposed to do. This report is akin to taking comfort in the knowledge that Secret Service agents are just as likely to murder the President as anyone else.

But let’s just break this down. According to the poll Newsweek cites, ”64 percent of those queried thought Catholic priests ‘frequently’ abused children.” Newsweek rebuts those poor, misinformed souls handily: (emphasis mine)

Yet experts say there’s simply no data to support the claim at all. No formal comparative study has ever broken down child sexual abuse by denomination, and only the Catholic Church has released detailed data about its own. But based on the surveys and studies conducted by different denominations over the past 30 years, experts 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. “I can tell you without hesitation that we have seen cases in many religious settings, from traveling evangelists to mainstream ministers to rabbis and others.”

There are several huge problems with this. First of all, as this article mentions over and over again, there is little data to support this “claim,” but there’s also little data to disprove it, partially because child molestation is the most underreported crime. It is, therefore, impossible to prove this, but anyone familiar with these cases knows that priests can exert forms of coercion that normal child-rapists cannot, so the rate of unreported cases is likely much greater. A responsible, disinterested journalist would point that out. Instead, Newsweek takes the silence of victimized children, bought with torture and threat of eternal damnation, and uses it against them.

And those “surveys and studies conducted by different denominations?” Click the links. One is a New York Times article that mentions an “informal church survey” that found “between 10 and 23 percent of clergy nationwide have engaged in sexualized behavior or sexual contact with parishioners, clients, employees, etc., within a professional relationship.” So, an informal survey about a completely different topic.

The Christian Science Monitor study they cite isn’t about child rape by clergy, but by anyone connected with a church. It found that, among Christian churches, most sex abuse allegations were made against church volunteers, and that most church child-sexual-abuse cases involve a single victim. It sounds to me like most churches are really good at catching and stopping child rape.

Contrast that with the Catholic church, which even the Newsweek article nonchalantly observes is “historically… bad at punishing (or preventing) molesters.”

That helps explain the 200 children who were abused at a school for the deaf. It didn’t happen because the school was full of rapists; it happened because one man was never stopped.

This encapsulates the fundamental dishonesty of this whole exercise. The reason people like me cannot understand why any parent would ever bring their child anywhere near a Catholic church isn’t because more priests are child molesters than anyone else. It’s because the ones that are will do it over and over again, and even when they are caught, will be thrown like a grenade into another church full of children, with the full knowledge of the church’s monolithic leader. A normal child rapist is much more likely to see the inside of a prison cell, and the business end of a melted, razor-sharp toothbrush. But Newsweek would have you simply shrug your shoulders and say, “We can all do better.”

Want a little bit of bitterly comic relief? After noting how little data there is to prove the kids’ case, Wingert uncritically cites a study bought and paid for by the accused:

The only hard data that has been made public by any denomination comes from John Jay College’s study of Catholic priests, which was authorized and is being paid for by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops following the public outcry over the 2002 scandals.

Even that study, nearly 20 years out of date, finds that 4% of priests were reported to have engaged in sexual misconduct with children, averaging more than 2 victims each. That 4% is equal to the 4% of all sexual abuse claims, child or not, in the CSM study.

This is not about religion, it is about the church, an organization that has proven overwhelmingly unworthy of its adherents’ trust.

Catholic Church, Newsweek, Pat Wingert, pope, Pope 1985 Letter, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Letter, Pope Letter Molestation, Pope Letter Pedophile Case, Pope Molestation, Pope Sexual Abuse, Pope Sexual Abuse Letter, priest molestation, Tommy Christopher, Vatican

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ow-Lafaye/100000432296831 Ow Lafaye

Excellent observations…thank you…Remember:

In 300 years the Roman Catholic Church will refer to these times as one in which the church was falsely and malignantly attacked by atheists, non-believers, government and Satanic enemies of Christianity.

“Against a massive effort to discredit the piety and chasteness of the clergy with accusations of heinous crimes, the church and her followers fought a protracted battle against this evil… eventually triumphing in the name of Jesus and to the greater glory of the mother church.”

I assure you that this will come to pass…this has always been the strategy of the criminal enterprise called Catholicism.

May the light of knowledge shine on your path,
May your path lead to truth,
and the LIE die.
Puter Boi

TC?
Excellent work.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Skojec/837880614 Steve Skojec

I’m a life-long Catholic. I’ve been an altar boy, a youth group leader, a parish groundskeeper (as a teen), and I’ve lived with, worked for, and done missionary work with the Legionaries of Christ – whose founder, Fr. Maciel, is one of the worst of the abusers in the Church’s sex scandals.

I’ve spent more alone time with a broad array of Catholic priests than most Catholics I’ve ever met. I can honestly say that even in my time with the Legionaries, not a single priest ever made even the slightest overture toward me.

This isn’t a simple issue. Take for example, the fact that the vast majority of victims were adolescent (not pre-pubescent) boys. It’s an underreported or often-dismissed objection, but ephebophilia is quite different than pedophilia, and indicts a huge homosexual subculture in the Catholic priesthood. I personally am aware of some college-aged men who were subjected to abuse by a certain priest – men old enough that their parents would have had no say in whether they were brought “anywhere near a Catholic church”, but vulnerable enough for whatever reason that they were susceptible to these influences.

Evil is evil, no matter where it’s found. I can’t – and won’t – make excuses for the administrative decisions that led to the shuffling of priests. I’ve long thought the Vatican should be more disciplinarian on a number of issues which are under its purview, not all of them so morally reprehensible as this.

But for a Catholic, who believes that his Church was instituted by Christ himself, carries within it the unbroken authority passed down from the original apostles, and is the vehicle by which the graces and sacraments necessary for eternal salvation are conferred, there is no place else to go. In the words of St. Peter himself in John’s Gospel, when Christ shocked the gathered masses with his exposition of the Eucharist as His true Body and Blood, “To whom else shall we turn? You alone have the words of everlasting life.”

I’m not saying YOU have to believe it. But for those of us who do, there aren’t a lot of options. Bad priests, bad bishops, and yes, even bad popes have all been a standard part of the Church’s history. St. John Chrysostom famously said that “the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.”

For those who believe in a supernatural battle for souls, the dichotomy between good and evil, and the fact that evil seeks to corrupt the good, is entirely logical. But you don’t have to be a believer to know that. Good works are constantly spoiled by bad men. It’s the story of human history. A Church with a 2,000 year history does not just call it quits and dissolve itself because its members have been involved in some heinous stuff for the past century. The whole point of Christianity is that we’re all hypocrites and sinners, all in need of redemption and repentance. Even men of the cloth. Maybe especially so.

It’s hard to be a Catholic in these times. But I’ve known too many good priests who are really out there doing God’s work to throw my faith under the bus because a bunch of scumbags and their bosses got away with doing some terrible, criminal things. My beliefs transcend that. It MUST be fixed, and those responsible MUST be held accountable, even if it were the pope himself.

But the Church and all the good that it stands for goes on.
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Boyer/602168764 John Boyer

Tommy just doesn’t like the Church.

Or is that too pat of a reading of his lack of nuance?
thelowedown

@Steve

If a kid past prepubescent, but let’s say 14, are they at the age of consent for a homosexual relationship?
Tommy Christopher

Steve,

your comment made me wanna barf all over again. Honestly, the only redeeming feature is that you didn’t mention leaving your own kids in the Pope’s charge.

I’ve heard this pre-vs-post-pubescent argument before, and aside from stoking hatred against gays, I do not see your point. Aside from that, I frankly don’t believe the claim. It comes from the same report that the Catholic church bought and paid for, and the report doesn’t offer any real data to support the claim. I’m actually glad about that, as I shudder to think how they would go about determining which victims had or had not finished puberty. Their conclusion is belied by their other conclusion, that the “most vulnerable” ages were 11-14. Male puberty can begin as late as age 16. It also, again, ignores that the youngest, most vulnerable victims are much less likely to report, much more easily coerced. That’s what you’re counting on, though, eh?

Your characterization of this as “bad administrative decisions” that led to “shuffling of priests” is insulting and offensive. This is a decades-long pattern of willful child endangerment.

As to your faith, that’s your business. I hope you enjoy many years attending church with other childless people.
Tommy Christopher

John,

No worse than if you’d said “The church just doesn’t like children.” But go ahead, give me the nuance. I can’t wait.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Tommy:

Well done. I think I might disagree with only one word in the entire piece. In the first paragraph, I think I might have said “grossly negligently harming children” instead of “willfully harming children,” but I wouldn’t put up much of a fight.
SWWT

This is where I would normally say, hey, yeah, child abuse does go on in the catholic church and it’s disgusting how they would rather cover it up then get rid of a priest… however, lets not get too carried away about it. There are still a lot of good people in the catholic church, hopefully things get better…

It’s kind of hard to be calm and not feel betrayed and revolted by this scandal, though.
Snipzor

Ack, Steve’s post reminds me of what’s wrong with the Catholic belief system. Quite disgusting if you ask me, which you didn’t.
Tommy Christopher

A-Finch,

thanks.

If they had simply covered it up, willful negligence might be a generous characterization. The fact that they continued to place these priests with children makes it willful harm.
frjimt

so the rate of unreported cases is likely much greater……….
ah, the failure of logic……..
as for your comments about priests being thrown like grenades into other churches……..
how about saving a grenade or two for the teachers, the grandparents, the uncles, neighbors, scout leaders, etc. who have abused children.
Jim771

“Wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that child molestation would be a whole lot less common among priests?”
Actually, no it wouldn’t. Because these people don’t typically become pedophiles/pederasts after they become priests. Their desire for children or underage young men existed “before” they became priests. And many of them likely signed up to be priests just because it would offer them the position they needed to be able to be with children at a Catholic school or what not, and in a position of authority. Some others probably signed up thinking they could suppress their unnatural desires, but eventually chose to act on those desires.
annejaa

Well the fundamental premise here is that those who abuse children overwhelmingly seek out situations where they have easy and legitimate access to children and if facts matter at all, then Catholics can assure that the majority of priests have never posed any threat to the safety of children. So now i think its more dangerous to send your child to church than it is to have your child go to public school.
m3 ds