ROME
National Catholic Reporter
by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 08, 2012 NCR Today
Experts reject homosexuality as risk factor
ROME — Two American experts told a Vatican summit today that the full costs of the sexual abuse crisis – including financial payouts, emotional distress, alienation among both clergy and laity, and damage to the church’s moral authority – is essentially incalculable, but massive beyond any doubt.
Focusing on the United States, the two speakers provided estimates suggesting that the American church has spent at least $2.2 billion settling litigation related to the crisis, and that there may have been as many as 100,000 total victims of clerical sexual abuse.
Before surveying the damage, Michael Bemi and Pat Neal rejected what they described as four “myths” about the crisis, which were:
•The crisis is an American problem.
•The crisis has been exaggerated by a Godless media that is antagonistic to people or institutions of faith.
•The crisis has been instigated by avaricious attorneys whose only objective is to enrich themselves financially.
•Homosexual orientation causes men to be sex offenders. (“Neither homosexual nor heterosexual orientation is a risk factor,” they said, “but rather, disordered or confused sexual orientation is a risk factor.”)
While each of those claims may have “elements of truth,” the two speakers said, “none on its own, nor all of them combined, can even begin to explain and fully describe the misconduct crisis.”
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