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  Leading Sexuality and Religion Organization Decries New Report on Catholic Pr

Religious Institute
May 20, 2011

http://www.religiousinstitute.org/sites/default/files/press_releases/leading-sexuality-and-religion-organization-decries-new-report-on-catholic-priest-sexual-abuse

[Full text]

May 18, 2011—The just-released report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church completed by John

Jay College of Criminal Justice, titled Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests, includes findings and conclusions that may be surprising to church critics and apologists alike. Rev. Debra Haffner, Executive Director of the Religious Institute, made the following statement concerning the report:

“The conclusions of the John Jay report are based on a lack of understanding of child sexual

offenders, the dynamics that lead to clergy sexual misconduct, the crippling lifelong effects of

sexual violation by a religious leader, and the long-term willful disregard of the Catholic

hierarchy for the safety needs of children. The priests who violated children and teens—and the

Catholic hierarchy who ignored them or worse moved them to other parishes—violated the sacred trust of the people they serve as well as their own vows. The conclusion that that permissiveness of the 1960's and 1970's led to sexual misconduct is reminiscent of that period's refrain ‘The Devil Made Me Do It.’

 
 

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