NEW YORK
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 8:43 am EDT September 20, 2005
NEW YORK -- Researchers have identified a pattern in the molestation crisis afflicting the Roman Catholic Church: most of the victims are older boys.
Noting this trend, some high-ranking Catholics have concluded that many abusive clergy are gay, and some church members have suggested purging the priesthood of homosexuals. But abuse experts say that's a simplistic approach that will not end the threat to children.
"What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for gays," said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and sex abuse consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "We need to be careful that we don't make anyone - whether it's priests or gays - scapegoats."
In the Vatican's first public comments about the scandal, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, chief spokesman for Pope John Paul II, told The New York Times the church needed to prevent gays from becoming priests.
Estimates of the number of gays among seminarians and the 47,000 Catholic clergy in the United States vary dramatically, from 10 percent to 50 percent. But no credible data exists on the number of abusive priests who are homosexual, said Dr. Fred Berlin, a sexual disorders expert at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Posted by kshaw at September 20, 2005 06:06 PM