Activists representing gay Catholics and priests’ abuse victims on Wednesday said homosexuality is not responsible for the church’s sex abuse crisis and that officials raising the issue are merely trying to avoid blame.
Reacting to comments this week from the cardinals’ meeting at the Vatican, experts on sexual disorders also expressed concern, saying there is no evidence that gay men are any more likely to molest minors.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said he interpreted the talk in Rome about homosexuality and the priesthood as “just another smokescreen.”
“Church leaders seem preoccupied with pointing fingers of blame, whether it’s at abuse victims themselves or their lawyers or the media,” he said. “On that list include gay priests. If there’s blame to be assessed, the bishops need to look squarely in the mirror.”
Clohessy said the real issue is not gay priests but a culture of celibacy, secrecy and coverup.
“In a clerical culture where no sex is permitted,” he said, “many priests, gay and straight, will have secrets, and if you have a secret you’re less apt to tell about your brothers.”
Among the speakers who angered Clohessy and others was Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who said Tuesday that “it is an ongoing struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men.”
Marianne Duddy, executive director of Dignity/USA, a national organization for gay Catholics, was “shocked and horrified” at Gregory’s comments, saying a priest’s orientation has nothing to do with his work. The Vatican, she said, is trying to deflect criticism by shifting the focus away from church leaders who shielded pedophile priests.
“I don’t think the average Catholic thinks about the sexual orientation of their priest who is busy baptizing their children, presiding over marriages and burying their dead,” said Duddy, whose 33-year-old group has 3,000 members in 65 chapters. “There is no indication that gay men cannot be good priests.”
Clohessy said his organization is convinced the focus must be on prevention of abuse.
“The next priest who gets removed,” he said, “should be the one who knew or suspected abuse allegations but did not speak up. In virtually every criminal and civil case we’ve seen, evidence emerges that one or more priests knew or suspected a child was being molested but chose to remain silent.”
That silence, he said, has led to untold suffering and sorrow.
David Fassler, a child psychiatrist at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, said he was worried that some people were trying to link homosexuality and pedophilia without any evidence. “To my knowledge,” he said, “there has not been any extensive research in this area.”
Dr. Fred S. Berlin, associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on sexual disorders, said, “I don’t think there’s any evidence whatsoever that a homosexual man is a greater risk [to a boy] than a heterosexual man is to a girl.”
Berlin said that if people would step back and “look at the big picture nationally and internationally” they’d see “it’s very clear every bit as much sexual abuse is committed by men who are heterosexual.”
“We need not have tunnel vision here,” he said. “The informed opinion is that homosexuality is not the cause of child abuse.”
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At least one researcher studying seminarians and the priesthood called Gregory’s remarks unprecedented, saying they opened a door to discussion about celibacy, sexuality and the priesthood, including sexual orientation.
“The is the first time a man in authority has said anything like that,” said Dean Hoge, a sociologist at Catholic University of America who has occasionally addressed the topic in priest surveys for at least a decade.
“In the past, we’ve usually been criticized for asking a question [about homosexuality],” he said. “It was seen as something we shouldn’t talk about.”