Researchers released the preliminary results of a study on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church earlier this month, reporting that homosexuality did not play a role in the abuse cases.The full report, conducted by researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, isn’t expected until December 2010, but Margaret Smith, a researcher working on the project, shared the early findings with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the organization’s 2009 Fall General Assembly meeting in Baltimore.
The $2-million study was commissioned by the USCCB in 2002.
“What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse,” Smith said.
“At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now.”
After the wide-ranging sex-abuse scandal within the church came to light in 2002, the Vatican employed a review of all its Catholic seminaries in the United States to analyze factors that could be fueling the abuse, including any “evidence of homosexuality” existing in the schools and their teachings.
The Vatican also released a statement in 2005 that men with “deep-seated” same-sex attractions are not eligible for priesthood.
The Associated Press reported that nearly 14,000 sex-abuse claims have been leveled against Catholic clergy members in the past 60 years, and according to a John Jay report released in 2004, more than 80 percent of the child victims were male.
The findings announced earlier this month noted that incidents of abuse peaked in the 1960s and early ’70s and have been on the decline since 1985.
The church has spent more than $2.3 billion in costs related to the complaints.
In 2004, a national diocesan audit found that there had been 44 credible abuse accusations against clergy from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia between 1950-2003.
At the time, Cardinal Justin Rigali said the archdiocese had spent approximately $125,000 on counseling for the victims in the previous 10 years.
Archdiocesan spokesperson Donna Farrell said the diocese has had a “few settlements in recent years,” but declined to detail how much the cases cost.
Farrell did note that the archdiocese, through its Victim Assistance Program, provided “direct payment for services to victims and family members” that totaled more than $1 million last year.
This summer, the archdiocese donated $50,000 to the successful effort to overturn same-sex marriage in Maine, and Farrell continued to decline to comment on whether that funding was derived from church collections, individual donations or other sources.
Also at this month’s conference, the bishops approved a policy paper, “Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan,” which reaffirms the church’s opposition to marriage equality.
In the document, the authors wrote the idea of same-sex marriage is “one of the most troubling developments in contemporary culture” that will “harm both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society.”
The paper attempted to refute the contention that marriage equality is an issue of nondiscrimination, fairness and civil rights, proffering that “the union of one man and one woman is itself a matter of justice.”
The authors went on to say that the Church “upholds the human dignity of homosexual persons, who are to be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity” but advises that “chaste friendships” with members of the same and opposite sex are to be the only proper relationships outside of marriage.
The paper said that legalizing same-sex marriage would pose a “multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society,” and would impact “all people, married and not married, not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence and religious freedom.”
The 60-page paper was approved Nov. 17 by 180 bishops, while 45 were opposed and three abstained.
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