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	Education Key to Preventing Abuse by Clergy By Annysa Johnson Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 5, 2011 http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/119297389.html It is difficult to accurately predict which priests are likely to go on to abuse minors, and the best defense against clergy sex abuse is to train seminarians on issues of sexuality and healthy relationships, a researcher told participants in an international conference on the crisis, at Marquette University Law School on Tuesday. "It's much more important to educate (seminarians) . . . and create a community and support so that emotional and psychological health is fostered among the Catholic priesthood," said Margaret Smith, one of the authors of an upcoming report, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on the causes and context of the crisis. Smith was among a number of speakers Tuesday, including clergy and lay leaders from around the world, who addressed ways in which the Catholic Church can minister to victims and others harmed by the crisis, heal the church at large, and diminish the likelihood that such abuses will occur again. They called for a full accounting of the crisis, transparency in the way the church handles such cases, and greater accountability and consequences for offenders and bishops who moved them from parish to parish. They advocated reform of the clerical culture they say contributed to the crisis and a greater role for laity workers in enforcing reforms and reaching out to survivors. "Change is needed if this cancer is to be removed from the body of Christ," said Father James Connell, a Sheboygan priest and vice chancellor of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, who has organized a small group of priests to begin addressing the needs of sex abuse victims locally. A panel of those priests drew a standing ovation Tuesday after sharing their experiences and insights into the crisis. Smith, of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, highlighted some of the findings of the causes and context study, which is due out in May. She reiterated findings released in preliminary report showing that the number of reported incidents has declined since peaking in the 1960s and '70s, and that homosexuality does not appear to have been a contributing factor in the abuse. Smith said the pattern of abuse mirrored that of deviant behavior elsewhere in society, such as sexual and drug experimentation, and suggested that mainstream seminaries did not equip students to respond to social changes and turmoil. "You have to consider a vulnerable priesthood based on conservative training in the '40s and '50s . . . (with) very little education in . . .  human development," she said.
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