**"Was There Really a Priest Paedophile Problem?"**

Time and again I have pointed out that the overwhelming majority of cases of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy concerned homosexual priests molesting pubescent males, and that the incidence of clerical sexual abuse is no higher than among comparable organisations, contrary to the impression given generally by the media. Moreover, nobody in the media seems interested to inquire about the ideological state of mind of the abusing clergy, and to what degree those abusing priests had jettisoned traditional Catholic belief and took on the liberal spirit of the age.

A reader sent me a link to an excellent article in which Fr Jim Lloyd makes the same case on his website, providing many concrete references.

The question is whether clerical sexual abuse, as real and repugnant as it is, can be termed paedophilia - if one wants to be intellectually honest. Intellectual honesty in the media! I leave the reader to follow the link to the article. Below I reproduce a few pertinent paragraphs.

Recently, Cardinal Egan, the Archbishop of New York made the following public statement:

“We must never lose sight of the fact the Archdiocese of New York has an extraordinary presbyterate and that our record is very likely the best in the nation [US]. When compiling the list of allegations for the national audit, the Archdiocese amounted to less than 1% of the thousands of priests who have served and continue to serve the Archdiocese for the past 50+ years. The New York City Public Schools, on the other hand, had more allegations of sexual abuse of minors by teachers in the first semester of this academic year alone than the Archdiocese has had in more than fifty years.”

Dr. William Donahue, President of the Catholic Defense League and a professional sociologist, observes that in the year 2005, there were 21 allegations that involved minors as victims but only five were found credible, two were still under investigation and in two other instances, there was insufficient information. Ultimately, there were at most nine priest cases for the year. He notes that we had approximately 42,000 priests in 2005 which means that .02 percent had a credible accusation made against him. One unfaithful priest is too many for me but the facile implication of widespread abuse (by misuse of words and mindless statements) is dishonest and unjust. Why wasn’t it reported that in 2005, 99.98 percent of the priests in the United States had no credible accusation made against them? It was nowhere reported. Incidentally, Dr. Donahue sharply reminds us that the term ephebophile is never used to refer to heterosexual acts, only homosexual ones. The term is probably ideologically coined and rarely used. But it is precise in its meaning. The overwhelming percentage of the heinous acts by those erring priests was with adolescent males. There have been feeble insinuations that priests will now molest altar girls but the interesting fact is that after 12 years of female serving at the altar, there are no such problems. As Donahue points out “…it is still the males that the molesters want.”

Dr. Donahue makes the bold assertion: “I am willing to bet that there is no institution, demographic group or profession in the United States today that has less of a problem with sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church…” So, from where come the vicious attacks? And why?

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com