BishopAccountability.org
	Abuse Report Met with Critical Reactions Catholic Culture May 19, 2011 http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=10374 A final report on the “causes and context” of the clerical sex-abuse scandal, prepared by John Jay College and released on May 18 by the US bishops’ conference, has met with critical reactions--both from victims of abuse and from readers who question the report’s treatment of controversial issues such as the influence of homosexuality and the responsibility of the American bishops. Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist who has treated many troubled priests, said that the statistical evidence in the John Jay report clearly indicated a connection with homosexuality: a connection that the report itself denied. Fitzgibbons said that “analysis of the research demonstrates clearly that the major cause of the crisis was the homosexual abuse of males.” He added that the John Jay College authors, who are experts in criminology rather than psychology, “lack the professional expertise to comment on causes of sexual abuse.” Historian David O’Brien questioned the study’s conclusion that social upheaval during the 1960s and 1970s was a major factor in the rise of clerical abuse. That explanation, he said, created the impression that the American bishops are blaming society for the problem, rather than admitting their own culpability for the failure to stop priestly abuse. Spokesmen for victims generally took a similar line, protesting that the report downplayed the role of the hierarchy in shielding abusers.
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