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	The John Jay Report Release: Our Concern Rests with the Survivors Today National Survivor Advocates Coalition May 18, 2011 http://nationalsurvivoradvocatescoalition.wordpress.com/editorials/ Our first concern today as we alert our readers to the release of the John Jay Report is for the survivors and their families and for the families of those who committed suicide as it will be a day with increased news coverage about sexual abuse which brings with it the searing tearing at scars, the churning of memories, the trauma of flashback, and quite simply, pain. We renew our commitment to walk with you. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice report known as "The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests 1950-2010 was five years in the making at a cost of nearly $2 million paid mostly by the bishops, 300 pages based on data whose primary sources is dioceses and religious orders. From the pre-publication news reports (the embargo on the release is afternoon Wednesday 5/18/11) it appears that this outlay of Catholic money by the bishops and the use of four years of study has concluded first the crisis simply was, it has passed, and the "was" (Philadelphia notwithstanding) "was" due to the sexually permissive culture of the 1960s and 1970s. This begs these questions: Since this has been the mantra of the hierarchy at least since the Dallas bishops meetings in 2002 if not before what does the funding and the cooperation of the bishops for the report's data do to its outcome? What weight does the study give to the knowledge that has been gained in the scandal that it takes victims into their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s to come forward? That puts anyone abused in the 1980s at just the brink of their "going public" time frame (somewhere in their 30s or 40s). For knowledge of what happened in most of the 1980s, the 1990s and 2001-10, through today we will have to wait 20, 30, 40,50, 60 to 70 plus years. If the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s had such an effect on the ministers of the Church as to allow rape and sodomy of children to take hold even within a percentage of its celibate priests for an "aberrant" two decades, what does this say about a self-identified counter cultural institution's ability to see, arm against, and force out the parts of a corruptive culture taking root within itself? There are disturbing items in the pre-publication reports, among them: "it is inaccurate to refer to abusers as pedophile priests" because fewer than 5 percent of the abusive priests exhibited behavior consistent with pedophilia." The study, it seems, bases this conclusion on a definition of "psychiatric disorder characterized by recurrent fantasies, urges and behaviors about prepubescent children." Since this information about who had and who didn't have "fantasies and urges" would have to come directly from the abusers, it will be important to know how many abusers were directly interviewed and how these abusers were identified for the study. The study also says that abusive priests could not be identified "in advance". It will be important to see if the report speaks to the evidence that when abusive priests were identified by victims, parents, other relatives, attorneys, those who worked in parishes or other settings with them that the reality of identifying and removing abusive priests, it appears, was not possible either. If there are no identifiers, shouldn't that mean that all the stops on the vigilance scale should be pulled out to protect children, – beginning today - such as extension of statute of limitations and windows that offer access to justice? With the release of the report and its reading, we are certain to have more to say. We ask our readers to engage in the discussion as well with comments to us, letters to the editor of local and national secular and religious newspapers and broadcast outlets. Please speak out.
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