Catholic Study: Seminaries Didn't Train Priests for Celibacy

WASHINGTON — Homosexuality, celibacy, and an all-male priesthood did not cause the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, according to a study that U.S. bishops commissioned to analyze the decades-long pattern of clergy sex abuse.

About 44 percent of the known abuse cases involved priests who were ordained in the 1940s and 1950s, at a time when seminaries did not train them properly to live a celibate life, says the report from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. These men were not equipped to withstand the social upheaval of the 1960s, which was a time of an increase in sexual deviancy and a spike in crime in society at large, the authors said.

The full report is the last of three studies the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned as part of child protection reforms adopted in 2002 at the height of the American abuse crisis.

Dioceses nationwide have received allegations from more than 15,700 people against about 6,000 clerics since 1950, according to reports John Jay and others compiled for the bishops. The findings are scheduled to be released Wednesday. A person close to the bishops provided a copy to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to release the information.

The debate over what caused the crisis has fallen along ideological lines, with liberals blaming mandatory celibacy or the lack of women in positions of authority. Conservatives pointed to gay priests, since the overwhelming majority of known victims were boys.

The John Jay researchers, however, said that the offenders chose boys mainly because the clergy had greater access to them. Abuse cases peaked in the 1970s, then began declining sharply in 1985, following a similar trajectory for the rate of abuse in society at large, according to the researchers, .

The bishops hoped the results of the study, which were first reported by Religion News Service, would help them better identify potential offenders. The researchers, however, said they found no "psychological characteristics" or "developmental histories" that distinguished guilty priests from clergy who did not molest children.

"No single 'cause' of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests is identified as a result of our research," the authors wrote.

Although the victims studied by the researchers were all legally minors, the authors said only a tiny percentage of accused priests — less than 5 percent — could be technically defined as pedophiles. The John Jay researchers define pedophile as an adult with an intense sexual attraction to prepubescent children. However, victim advocates have disputed that classification, since boys ages 10-14 were the largest group of known victims, which could include children who had not yet gone through adolescence.

Critics argue the study cannot be trusted because the bishops provided the raw data.

In February, a Philadelphia grand jury alleged that the local archdiocese kept 37 credibly accused clergy in public ministry, despite repeated pledges by the nation's bishops that no offenders would stay on duty. In response, Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali suspended about two dozen clergy and hired a former prosecutor to review the cases. Ana Maria Catanzaro, the head of the Philadelphia review board, which was formed to advise bishops on abuse cases, said last week that the archdiocese had "failed miserably at being open and transparent" and had kept some cases from the board.

"What Philadelphia does is reveal the flaws in the process," said Ann Barrett Doyle of the advocacy group BishopAccountability.org, which is compiling a public database of all records related to the scandal.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said the study is useless for protecting children because the focus is on priests, not bishops. No bishops have been disciplined by the Oope for keeping offenders in ministry without warning parents or police.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops' conference, said the bishops fully cooperated with the $1.8 million study, which was funded by the bishops, foundations, and a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

"John Jay was chosen to do the study because of its independence from the church," Walsh said. "John Jay was free to consult whomever they wanted and they did so."