Priest Personnel Files – And Why Everyone Should Care …

The theology of priest personnel files in the Roman Catholic Church is oddly similar to its theology of sex.  Even though the creation and maintenance of priest files are natural and good in order to administer the church, church officials blush and bristle in acknowledging they exist.

The files have all sorts of names from Diocese to Diocese and Religious Order to Religious Order: 489 files, sub secreto files, personal files, and Hell files.  But what doesn’t change is the detail contained in the files that the Hierarchy wants to abstain from discussing or showing to federal prosecutors, sex crimes detectives, and survivors of rape and sodomy who have settled righteous claims.

That is why the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision not to consider the Diocese of Bridgeport’s appeal to keep the documents sealed is so historically important.

Priest personnel files are important for several reasons:

First, they detail every contact the diocese or religious order has with the priest or religious. Whether it is the first contact with the vocations director, a complaint from the pastor who again caught a child in the cleric’s room, a complaint from a nurse on the pediatric ward, or a letter of praise from a Grandma McDonough, every piece of correspondence is preserved.

Second, church archivists and historians consistently teach that the past is prologue to the future. If a Priest or Religious or lay volunteer sexually abuses a child, there exists a criminal psychic infirmity in that person’s very nature – a zebra cannot change its stripes.  Father Gerald Fitzgerald, S.P. told the Popes and Bishops in the 1940s, 1950s and 60s that these vipers cannot be placed back in ministry.  As a result, Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI allowed Father Fitzgerald to create worldwide treatment centers for priest offenders.

Third, priest personnel records contain the materials and evidence demonstrating what the Hierarchy knew and when they were aware of the priest’s or religious’ pedophilic and ephebophilic behaviors. One study by Robert Camargo and John Loftus reviewed 1,322 clerics treated at the Southdown Institute.  Another study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found that 4,392 priests were credibly accused of sexually abusing children in the U.S.  Not surprisingly, only 3,250 of those 4,392 have been disclosed.  Where are the remaining 1,142?  It’s in the files …

Fourth, Reverend Canice Connors, OFM told the Milwaukee Journal and reported to the Bishops at the 1993 annual meeting, “The Catholic Church in North America possesses the greatest data bank of evaluation and treatment of non-incarcerated pedophiles on the continent.  That data should be analyzed scientifically and shared with others studying the problem.” The study, which was 86% completed, had it funding pulled and the data and preliminary conclusions were never disseminated.

The Hierarchy at the Dallas 2002 meeting hollowly proclaimed a new age of transparency in order to protect children.  By the Hierarchy’s actions and inactions, this transparency apparently does not include the most crucial historical documents: priest personnel files.  As we follow the news and see new priests and bishops arrested, I have to conclude the Hierarchy has lost control of the institution.  Thus the sad time has come for every Archdiocese, Diocese, and Religious Order in litigation to turn over all their personnel files (past and present) for public review.

Since there is nothing to hide behind and there is little else more important than the safety and protection of children, it is time for the Hierarchy to follow the directives of the U.S. Supreme Court and turn over priest personnel files to prosecutors, detectives and survivors.  Like sex, the Hierarchy has the priest personnel files issue all backwards: The real scandal and destruction to the church’s reputation is secretly hiding the facts and not analyzing the causes and prevention of clerical sexual abuse for future generations.

Church Crisis Intervention Teams – And The Men Who Help Them

In preparation for a time of severe crisis, it is ancient and natural for an institution to create a crisis response team.

With this concept in mind, I began a search for possible clerics that a Bishop or Religious Superior would assign to a crisis response team in order to deflect an impending priest child sex abuse scandal.

I had an easy place to start: The civil window in Delaware (which closes in early July) and the cases spawning from it inspired me to look for important clerics in the Wilmington/Philadelphia area. As I went through some dusty books, the works of Father Benedict Groeschel O.F.M. Cap. and Father John F. Harvey O.S.F.S. jumped off the shelf.

Why?

Father Groeschel, like Fathers Thomas Verner Moore O.S.B. and Father Gerald Fitzgerald S.P. before him, has – for decades – been a spiritual director and psychologist to priests who sexually abused children. As the director for spiritual development in the Archdiocese of New York and professor at the Institute for Psychological Sciences in Arlington, VA, Father Groeschel’s actions and deeds make him a natural choice for an integral role protecting the Church, Religious Order, and Priest who offended against minors and vulnerable adults.

Most crisis response team members are chosen because they are skilled, loyal, and above all, discreet. Father John Harvey is a little bit different. As director of the Courage Center, Harvey pioneers a uniquely Roman Catholic approach to homosexuality, which many contend violates the natural law and human reason. But in spite of this, Father Harvey was deployed by his Order for a role that required a discretion that seemed beyond him: the crisis intervention team for clerics who raped and sodomized children.

And still, he couldn’t be discrete.

Father Harvey wrote in 1986, “for several years I have been engaged in what is best described as crisis intervention, working with clinical psychologist John F. Kinnane, of Catholic University, Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons of Philadelphia, and with treatment centers in the rehabilitation of clerics and religious who had become emotionally and sexually involved with boys or adolescent males… we have been able to share our perception with them and to help fourteen clerics get some measure of control over their lives.” (The Homosexual Person, page 226, Ignatius Press)

The amount of knowlege that these two men have is vast and untouched. I can’t even imagine what we would learn if either of these men shared what they know with the people who need it most – victims.

The time has come for prosecutors, law enforcement, civil authorities and mental health professionals to find out what these two men – and the other crisis intervention teams of the Roman Church – know in order to assist survivors. As Pope Leo IX wrote to Peter Damian in his response to receiving the Book of Gomorrah, “he who does not attack vice encourages it.”

Or as I like to say: if you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem

The Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and Sexual Abuse

I wasn’t surprised when I saw this press release about new lawsuits accusing two Oblates of St. Francis de Sales of sexual abuse.

What is surprising and worth noting, however, is that the two accused priests were supervised by their own religious order and FOUR different dioceses in THREE different states.   That’s a lot of “moving around” for priests with “unremarkable” records.

It seems as if people were working very hard behind the scenes to ensure that law enforcement never got a whiff of the threat that Dennis Killion and John McDevitt posed to children.

Rev. Dennis Killion, OSFS, who is named in both lawsuits, has now been accused of sexual abuse by TEN boys in Wilmington, Delaware, who attended Salesianum High School. Killion was teaching at Bishop Verot High School in Fr. Myers, Florida, until last year, even though the Oblates knew that boys had come forward to accuse him of abuse.

The other accused, Rev. John McDevitt, OSFS also taught at Sallies in the 1980s with Killion. Although this is the first allegation against McDevitt, his assignment record has significant gaps in the 1980s (mcdevitt-pjw), inbetween assignments at high schools in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

I hope that law enforcement takes a good look at these cases. Both of these men were reassigned across state lines after suspected or alleged abuse. Simply put, I smell a criminal conspiracy.

______________________________________________________

From SNAP – The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests – SNAPNetwork.org

Abuse Victims Speak Out About Two New Child Sex Abuse Lawsuits

Serial Molester Cleric and Other Priest Are Accused

Both Men – and Other Known Perpetrators – Shuttled Across Numerous State Lines Once Allegations Arose

Make Predators Names and Information Public in All States, SNAP Urges

Law Enforcement Must Learn Extent, Scope of Alleged Abuse, They Say

Sex abuse victims and their supporters are urging leaders of four Catholic dioceses and a religious order to turn over all documents and information about two clerics who were named today in child sex abuse lawsuits at a prestigious Wilmington DE high school. In a letter, they ask the bishops and leadership to:

– Make public and prominent the names of all known and suspected predators moved across state lines,
– Release all information – including documents and reports about these predators – to law enforcement and civil authorities, and
– Inform communities about credible allegations of abuse and encourage anyone with information to go to law enforcement, not church officials

The victims and their supporters are members of a group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused in religious organizations.

They sent the letter to the bishops of Wilmington, DE; Venice, FL; Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA; and the leadership of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales because they believe that both Rev. Dennis Killion, OSFS and Rev. John McDevitt, OSFS were quietly moved across state lines to avoid exposure and may have other victims in numerous states who may be suffering alone in silence and shame.

The two lawsuits, filed today in New Castle County DE, both allege that Dennis Killion sexually abused two boys while the boys were students at Salesianum High School in Wilmington in the 1980s. One of the two lawsuits also states that on a separate occasion, one alleged victim of Dennis Killion was also sexually abused by Rev. John McDevitt. Ten men have now come forward to accuse Killion of sexual abuse. http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090401/NEWS/90401036. Both accused men are members of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

Letters exposed in an earlier case show that Killion was moved to Philadelphia and then to Florida after abuse victims at Salesianum High School came forward http://www.winknews.com/news/local/26363349.html. In addition, after serving at Salesianum, McDevitt’s assignment record also shows gaps of no clerical assignment before he was assigned to the Dioceses of Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA. McDevitt is now deceased.

“Both of these men were moved across state lines. Both of these men had gaps in their work records. Both of these men have been credibly accused of sexual abuse,” the letter said. “You have a pastoral and legal responsibility to turn over everything you know about these men and other clerics who were quietly moved across state lines once allegations of sexual abuse arose.”

“The parents and communities of Delaware, Florida and Pennsylvania deserve to know that we have some serious questions about how and why these alleged predators left Delaware,” said Joelle Casteix, of Newport Beach, CA, SNAP Southwest Regional Director, a survivor who has worked with numerous victims in Delaware, PA and Florida.

The alleged victims were able to seek accountability in the civil courts because of the Delaware Child Victims Act, a landmark law that allows victims of child sexual abuse to seek justice in the civil court system, no matter when they were abused. The law expires in early July 2009.

The two men are represented by J. Michael Reck of Manly & Stewart Lawyers (714) 742-6593 and Bart Dalton of Dalton and Associates, Wilmington (302) 652-2050.

SNAP offers support group meetings in the Wilmington DE area. For time and location please contact Judy Miller at (302) 234-1519 or snapdelaware@yahoo.com.

Contact:
Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA SNAP SW Regional Director, (949) 322-7434
Judy Miller, SNAP Wilmington Director, (302) 234-1519
Barb Dorris of St. Louis, MO, SNAP Outreach Director, (314) 503-0003

U.S. Attorney on the Radio

U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien is giving a rare radio interview tomorrow, February 15, 2009.

He is scheduled to appear on the CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE show at 11 am on LA’s KABC AM 710. Fortunately, the show will also be broadcast live over the Internet and saved as a podcast at: www.kabc.com.

We don’t know if he will speak about the Mahony investigation, but it doesn’t hurt to hope.

The Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and Misdirection

This past week, the Holy Father and Bishops showed an amazing hubris and lack of humility – more so than almost any other time in the previous years.

To explain and justify his actions, the Holy Father cited the great example of Saint Peter “understanding the sickness of his mother in law” and how now he is reaching out and heal his own family’s sickness. If his actions demonstrate his prioriities and core spirituality, then we all must reflect on what has been said – as well as what has not been accomplished.

In fact, both the Holy Father and the Vatican Secretary of State were busy with the administrative acts of running the Holy See: appointing new bishops, appointing new members of the business office, and responding quickly by telephoning the heads of state in Germany and Italy. More importantly, here is what we did NOT see the Holy Father or Bishops do:

* The Pope chose not to withdraw his appointment of Richard Williams as a Bishop (or successor to the Apostles) after his refusal to recognize the slaughter of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime.

* The Pope chose not to telephone the U.S. Attorney regarding the investigation the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles on his handling of hundreds of alleged priests sexual abusing thousands of children in his dioceses of Fresno, Stockton, and Los Angeles.

* The Pope chose not to assist the Irish Church in its leadership crisis and the question of whether his Bishops should cooperate with the Irish government’s inquires into the safety of children.

* The Pope chose not to respond to the Bishop of Brooklyn announcing plenary indulgences are now again for sale.

The choices and ommissions by the Pope, the Roman Curia, and the 3,300 Bishops around the world plainly define their priorities. The people and groups they chose NOT to reach out to and heal are a sign that the exegesis of the story of Saint Peter and internalization of his spirit are not occuring in the current succesors to the Apostles.

A Little History on the New Vatican Guidelines for the Selection, Training, and Supervision of Candidates for the Roman Catholic Priesthood

“The Catholic Church in North America possesses the greatest databank of evaluation and treatment of non-incarcerated pedophiles on the continent. That data should be analyzed scientifically and shared with others studying the problem.”
Reverend Canice Connors OFM 1993
Quoted in the Milwaukee Journal

The Catholic Church has propounded the myth that it was the single institution that preserved culture and learning when western civilization fell into the dark ages. With the recent release of the Vatican guidelines for the use of psychology in the training of priest candidates, the Vatican has once again attained vagueness and deception in an attempt to prove that they alone have ability to police their predator priests.

What the Holy See is not telling us is that the Roman Catholic Church has the longest history and largest library on the causes, treatment, and prevention of childhood sexual abuse in the world. The problem is that they don’t listen to their own advice and adhere to their own rules.

Here is a partial list of what they know and could share with society:

In 309 AD the first church council was held at the city of Elvira to discuss childhood sexual abuse by clerics. At that meeting, church leaders decided that they would dismiss any cleric who had hurt a child. It was the first one-strike policy. (Power and Sexuality: The Emergence of Canon Law at the Synod of Elvira in Vigiliae Christianae )

Apparently, it didn’t work. In 1051, The Pope was given a detailed report by Saint Peter Damian in The Book of Gomorrah, an account detailing the graphic evidence of the sexual activities of the clergy. Remember, these are the days before the Internet, mass communications, transportation, or basic literacy. For Damian to amass an account such as this meant that the practice of child sexual abuse was rampant and flagrant.

Little changed in the next 900 years.

In 1936, Reverend Thomas Verner Moore OSB, M.D., began using psychological instruments to detect (what he called) “pre-psychotics” applying to the priesthood and religious life. The United States Catholic Bishops turned down Father Moore’s request to build a psychiatric hospital for clergy at Catholic University of America. The bishops did, however, understand a needs for a policy and a procedure to protect the church, so instead they built a highly secretive and effective infrastructure to hide sexually abusive clergy and religious.

Some dioceses built treatment centers on their own, catering care and treatment to the secretive nature of the church and providing a sanctuary for abusive clerics to escape law enforcement and exposure.

In 1946, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia founded the Saint John Vianney Institute in Downingtown PA. This is the oldest continually operating treatment facility in the U.S. The next year, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe founded a religious order of diocesan rite called the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, NM.

Some of the most dangerous men in the United States have stayed at both facilities.

Psychological testing in training and supervising seminarians and priests was again bandied around in 1971, when Conrad W. Baars, M.D., presented his paper – “The Role of the Church in the Causation, Treatment, and Prevention of the Crisis in the Priesthood” – to the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome.

The real smoking gun came in 1993, when Reverend Canice Connors OFM told the Milwaukee Journal on June 19, 1993, that “the Catholic Church in North America possesses the greatest data bank of evaluation and treatment of non-incarcerated pedophiles on the continent. That data should be analyzed scientifically and shared with others studying the problem.” He was in Milwaukee to present his findings to the U.S. Bishops.

The same year, a national study by the five major priest treatment facilities regarding the priests they had treated was never completed. The study was requested by the Institute of Mental Health and 86 percent of the data was completed regarding offending priests, but the U.S. Bishop’s Conference ordered it stopped.

This data has never been shared outside a small control group of the Church.

So, what of these new Vatican Guidelines?  They are simply an attempt to confuse the issue. Period. The bishops simply refuse to take real action

The Church’s knowledge is so vast and complete that if the Vatican and the United States Catholic Bishops shared this knowledge with the rest of society, they could instill real change.

If they applied their knowledge RIGHT NOW in the selection, training, ordination, and supervision of deacons, priests, and bishops, the crime of the serial sexual of abuse of children by Roman Catholic clerics could be eradicated in one decade.

Until then, our children will pay the price.

The Crafty Perpetrators Remain

More than a month ago, Sister Sheila McNiff of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus published a Los Angeles Times Op-Ed piece claiming that the clerical sexual abuse problems in Los Angeles have come to an end.

I do not blame her for attempting to close the door on an ugly decades-old chapter of the Archdiocese’s history – she was just doing her job. Those of us who have worked for the Roman Church were all taught to protect the Bishop. And that is exactly what she is doing.

The op-ed’s chart and accompanying text do the “numerator/denominator shuffle” by portraying the state of the local church as one with new procedures that have miraculously stopped bishops, priests, and deacons in the archdiocese from sexually abusing minors and vulnerable adults.

That is simply not the case. The truth is actually much scarier: only the simple criminals have been caught. The craftier clerical pedophiles and ephebophiles remain. Or better put: how can a couple of rules stop a 2000-year SECRET history of sexual abuse? The church (under the rule of the Pope) has been secretive for its entire history – how can one Cardinal change it? More importantly, why would he want to?

Pope Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Spe Salvi reminds us that the laws of reason, will and love ultimately govern the world. But we also know that reason and the powers of observation tell us that sexually abusive clerics were and are in active ministry.

The first time Catholic bishops met with the goal to implement controls over clerics who sexually abused children was at the Council of Elvira in 309 A.D. It didn’t work.

More than 1600 years later, abuse was still a serious problem ~ in 1922 Pope Benedict XV issued a worldwide procedure, De Modo Procendi in Causis Sollicitationis, instructing Bishops on how to proceed with accusations of clerical sexual abuse. The document was kept secret for more than 90 years.

In Los Angeles, the problem is endemic. We now know that Former Los Angeles Cardinal Timothy Manning sent and visited an Archdiocesan priest, George Pausch, at the Servants of the Paraclete in the 1950s to deal with clercial sexual abuse. These visits were kept secret until recently, when more than 500 civil sexual abuse cases unearthed documentation of the meetings.

Also, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met at Saint John’s Abbey in 1985 in closed session to discuss the national scandal. Why was the meeting closed and its purpose kept secret? And what will Mahony do to change this tradition? Nothing.

Since 2001, the L.A. District Attorney’s office has prosecuted several L.A. clerics for conduct after 2001 – with little to no help from the Archdiocese. What will Mahony do to help law enforcement? Nothing.

Thus, reason and history dictate that we will see new criminal and civil cases in 2008 and beyond.

Why? Because of the secrecy.

One of the classic defense arguments is that the “will” of Cardinal Roger Mahony has produced policies and procedures that have rooted out abusers. In short, defenders claim, things are getting better and better everyday. But facts are facts: It is sheer folly to even consider that the “will” of the Cardinal or any cleric can change the 2000-year-old culture of the Latin rite church.

Let’s look at what Mahony’s “will” could not do:

Cardinal Mahony did not have the will to stop clerical abusers as vicar general and auxillary bishop in Fresno. As bishop of Stockton, he did not have the will to stop abusers like Oliver O’Grady. Finally, Cardinal Mahony did not have the will to stop Fathers Baker, Wempe, and Lopez in Los Angeles. It was only due to the secular criminal and civil legal systems that these predators were finally stopped.

But these are the sloppy perpetrators. As more and more clerics are exposed as abusers, I believe that the more clever men – men like Donald McGuire – will slowly be ferreted out. And considering the size and history of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, I think that there are many clever men who are still actively serving and actively perpetrating. The sloppy perpetrators were able to abuse countless kids in spite of “reforms” and “studies” within the church. Smarter men will have no problem circumventing any new regulations that come their way.

Until Roger Mahony cooperates fully with law enforcement, tells the truth about abuse, and comes clean about what he knows and what he has done, all of the “reforms” in the world will not make the Archdiocese a safer place.

As we approach the Lenten season, I contend that God’s love will conquer the darkness of the clerical sexual abuses the Cardinals of Los Angeles attempted and still attempt to hide from the public. I have hope – not in internal Archdiocesan or Papal procedures – but in the police and prosecutors who now have the history and experience to help us stop the craftier clerical criminals yet to be discovered.

Your Tax Dollars May Be Supporting Abusers: The Problem of Government Support of Catholic Charities

The sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by Roman Catholic Clerics is the most damaging financial event in over two centuries. Not since Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) turned over the Papal States (central Italy) and disbanded the Papal army in the 1860s has the Church lost so many assets. Just recently, the bishops of California settled for in excess of 1.8 billion U.S. Dollars with national totals closing in on $4 billion.

But they shouldn’t be surprised … The 1985 Doyle/Peterson/Mouton Report warned the bishops of $1 billion worth of exposure.

What should concern the average American are the billions of Federal and State government dollars given to Catholic Charities for social services.

Yes, your tax dollars.

We can only hope that taxpayers and the government will take notice.

Just think: what will happen when society FINALLY makes the connection that the same bishops covering-up the rape of thousands of children are taking millions of tax dollars for Roman Catholic orphanages, day care centers, and social service centers?

Even when many of these places were the backdrop for decades of sexual abuse.

The 2007 Official Catholic Directory, the official communication between the United States Bishops and the I.R.S. for tax exception purposes, claims the following number of facilities and children under their care:

Residential Care facilities of Children (Orphanages): 986
Total assisted annually: 60,861
Day Care and Extended Day Care Centers: 1,231
Total assisted annually: 115,190
Special Centers for Social Services: 3,007

Total assisted annually: 27,887,358

I can only imagine what a federal inquiry would uncover.

If there were one policy change I suggest for the new president, congress, attorney general, and all state governors it is this:

Get out of the business of supporting the Roman Catholic Church through grants to Catholic Charities and related services.

There are other groups who can perform the same task with equal professionalism. No quantity or quality of good done by Catholic Charities personnel can cancel or forgive the criminal conduct condoned by the U.S. Bishops.

And I wonder: what is the legal liability for the government when children are abused in Catholic programs funded by tax dollars?

Many civil lawyers and government attorneys will rightly claim that the government tort claims act will stop or hinder such claims. Legally, I am sure that is correct.

But I believe that good does conquer evil. I also believe that the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults is an age-old reality in the life of the Catholic Church that will likely continue.

And the government should and must get out of the business of supporting the Catholic Church.

Finally: It is hard to believe that the Archdiocese of Chicago paid for the Defenbaugh report but it is a nice summary of how the post Dallas 2002 system still doesn’t protect children.

Ten Common Myths about the Sexual Abuse of Minors and Vulnerable Adults by Clerics

Myth #1 – Catholic priests are no more likely to be pedophiles than other groups of men.

Roman Catholic bishops, priests, and deacons are vowed to a life of perfect and perpetual continence. (canon 276 CIC83) This is the lens with which we should view the following facts from the John Jay Center for Criminal Justice Study commissioned by the Bishops.

Since 1950, 4,392 priests and ten bishops have resigned or been removed for credible accusations of sexual abuse against minors and vulnerable adults. Twenty-two percent of the allegations self-reported by the bishops were for children under the age of ten and 6% of the victims were under the age of seven (John Jay pg.9). I know of no other religious denomination, organization, or group in the world who is reporting these percentages or gross numbers of crimes as agents of their organization.

Myth #2 – The celibate state of priests does not lead to pedophilia.

Three different theologians and scholars employed by the Church in the twentieth century – as well as the Church’s own psychiatrists and psychologists who were ignored by the Hierarchy – disagree. I would go further and say that celibacy itself violates the natural law, betrays revealed faith and reason, and leads to numerous sexual paraphilia, including pedophilia, ephebophilia and bestiality. Beginning with Reverend Thomas Verner Moore in 1936, the Church has been attempting to understand the crime of stuprum (sex between an adult and a child) and other psychological infirmities of the clergy in the discipline of psychology.

Moore first studied the insanity rates among Catholic clergy and found them higher than the general population. Further, Moore also studied and published on detection measures of pre-psychotics who apply for admission to the priesthood or religious communities. In November 1971, Conrad W. Baars, M.D. of the Mayo Clinic presented a paper to the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome titled, “The Role of the Church in the Causation, Treatment, and Prevention of the Crisis in the Priesthood.“

The results were that only 10%-15% of priests attain adult maturation and 20%-25% have serious psychiatric difficulties.

Also during 1971, the Holy See made the Servants of the Paraclete an order of Pontifical rite. The third church therapist who was ignored is Reverend Michael Petersen of the Saint Luke Institute. Petersen along with Thomas Doyle, O.P. and Raymond Mouton, Esq. submitted a report to the Bishop for the 1985 Collegeville, MN. meeting that the scandal was going to explode if the Hierarchy did not attend to the victims.

Myth #3 – Married clergy would make pedophilia and other forms of sexual misconduct go away.

The track record of the hierarchy enforcing the discipline of clergy in sexual matters is riddled with holes. The bishops first met at Elvira in 309 AD and published in Power and Sexuality, to discuss and legislate against the sexual perversions of the clergy.

The pope was also given a detailed report by Saint Peter Damian in 1051 AD, The Book of Gomorrah, detailing the graphic evidence of the sexual activities of the clergy.

In the end, marriage will not change the current situation because the Hierarchy has not been able to enforce the legislation and delicts already on the books.

Myth #4 – Clerical celibacy started in the early church.

Celibacy was idealized in the early church but never officially enforced. Beginning in 1123 AD at the Council of Worms, Pope Calixtus II promulgated a canon that impeded married persons from being ordained but more importantly, the marriages contracted by clerics were declared invalid and had no effect.

Pope Calixtus then ordered all married priests to abandon their wives. The record indicates the medieval period did institutionalize celibacy. The First Lateran Council proclaimed that a male in Holy Orders attained an indelible mark and celibacy was an essential element of that priestly character.

Myth #5 – Female clergy would help solve the problem.

The fact is that we will never really know because the current teaching of the Church is that any layman and all women are not capable of holding the priestly or episcopal office.

Myth #6 – Homosexuality is connected to pedophilia.

Sexual abuse is a civil and canonical crime. The sexual orientation of the perpetrator is not relevant to prosecuting the crime.

We are all sinners but we are not all criminals.

Myth #7 – The Catholic hierarchy has made significant strides to address pedophilia.

No. The bishops have done nothing out of fear it will hurt their image and the image of the. The Hierarchy has never enforced penalties on the crimes of stuprum, sexual abuse of minors, sodomy, solicitation in the confessional, bestiality, and all the other crimes by clerics noted in canon 2359.2 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. The Hierarchy has had the evidence of the sexual abuse of minors, the knowledge of recidivism, and the complete power over the clergy … and they have done nothing.

The cover-up of the sexual abuse of minors is necessary in the Hierarchy’s worldview to maintain the image of the church as the perfect society.

Myth #8 – The Church’s teaching on family sexual morality is not the real problem.

The sexual morality of the clergy as evidenced in the thousands of sexual abuse cases across the world (look at Ireland) leads one to question the moral maturity of the clergy. If the clergy are emotionally immature it follows that they too are morally immature in regards to the sexual abuse of a child or vulnerable adult.

There has been a long-standing cry by the laity for the Hierarchy to concentrate less on the morality of the bedroom and more on the boardroom.

The evidence of the stuprum cases is cause for the Hierarchy to concentrate first on the morality in the rectory and less on the family home.

Myth #9 – Catholic journalists have ignored the pedophile problem.

Roman Catholic journalists, like priests, are in a difficult spot. They are paid and owe obedience to the Hierarchy who are deathly afraid of negative press and scandal. I believe if a Roman Catholic journalist was to fully plumb the depths of the scandal, they would be warned and then relieved of duty. The Roman Catholic journalist who studies and searches below the surface is like the nail that sticks out: they are hammered down.

Myth #10 – Requiring celibacy limits the number of men as candidates for the priesthood, resulting in a high number of sexually unbalanced priests.

This is the age old question, nature or nurture? The question we should be asking (noting that the Hierarchy has never successfully enforced the rule of celibacy) is: Does the Hierarchy – by omitting their duty to enforce the laws of the Church – attract a group of sexually unbalanced priests and religious thereby endangering all children at Roman Catholic Institutions?