US studies show priests do not have a monopoly on child abuse
When it was found the charge was without merit, that story was relegated to page 17.
I suggested that the paper wanted Cardinal Mahony to be guilty.
Joseph Barry (Irish Examiner letters, November 1) suggests that this is not logical because the Church has lost its power and therefore ‘liberals’ have no reason to attack it.
I respectfully suggest that logic has little to do with it. Hatred is not amenable to reason, and anti-clericalism is also a form of hatred.
But perhaps Catholic priests are far more guilty of child sex abuse than any other profession, and so journalists are justified in singling them out? In the US certain relevant studies have been done. The Nation magazine of September 22, 2003 featured an article by JoAnn Wypijewski referring to Philip Jenkins’ book, ‘Paedophiles and Priests.’
“Jenkins offers no brief for the church’s sexual agenda or its errant priests, but he rightly suspects games of ‘gotcha,’ she wrote.
“He notes that the soundest study of priestly sexual misconduct - involving 2,252 priests over 40 years - indicates that 1.7% behaved badly, such behaviour ranging from inappropriate speech to rape, and in only one case involving a true paedophile, ie, an adult sexually interested in pre-pubescent children.
Obviously, some 1,500 priests accused of any sexual abuse between the 1960s and 2002 indicates trouble, but Jenkins argues that honesty demands a recognition that: (a) incidents of paedophilia are rare; (b) priests hold no monopoly on such behaviour; and (c) there is strikingly little evidence that clergy of any kind are any more or less likely to abuse than non-clerical groups who have close contact with children.”
A 1998 study by Education Week, for instance, cited 244 incidents of teacher-student sex over a six-month period, ranging from unwelcome touching to consensual relations to serial rape, an average of nine cases a week.
The press has not elevated this to ‘social problem’ status.
The last point is crucial and it applies to Ireland as much as to the US.
Rory Connor
11 Lohunda Grove
Clonsilla
Dublin 15
