WASHINGTON (DC)
Guy Schell [Alton, IL]
February 21, 2024
By Guy Schell
The causes of the physical and sexual assault by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church
Introduction
This article discusses the sexual abuse of children by clergy. Detailed depictions of graphic physical violence are not a part of this article.
The classifications, Catholic Church or Roman Catholic Church (RCC), is used in this article to refer to all people who identify as Roman Catholic, i.e., clerics and congregants.
The classifications, Administrative Elites of the Roman Catholic Church, signified by the acronym AERCC, refers to the Pope, all other Bishops, and Non-Clerical administrators of the RCC who are seated in the upper echelons of power within the Vatican or other diocesan administrations.
Information that could be obtained through the use of a competent encyclopedia is not cited. All other information is cited and sourced.
I apologize to those who are extensively familiar with the topic being discussed and find themselves on familiar ground. Some statements bear repeating for those bishops who like to hover around the memory hole.
G. Schell 02.18.24
A friend of mine pointed me to an article he had discovered that was published September 20th of 2023 that made some alarming statements. The head line red, “CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE DISAPPEARING.”
‘Where did it go,’ I thought, ‘because it sure as hell hadn’t disappeared as of this morning.’
In 2018, I spent the better part of the year researching and writing about the clergy child sex abuse atrocity of the Roman Catholic Church that has been covered by main stream media, in a big way since the 2015 movie Spotlight hit the theaters. I was born into a Conservative Roman Catholic family, and believed the stories that victims told about their experiences with Catholic priests, but I was not prepared for the information that came from the research in 2018. The sheer numbers were astounding. For example, a low estimate of the number of victims of the spiritual holocaust was 100,000 in the USA alone in 2012. And this was one statistic of a thousand that steam rolled over any thoughts that I previously held that considered the administrative elites of the Roman Catholic Church (AERCC) honorable. Paraphrasing an old cliché, the Vatican rots from the head down.
In a report from the United Nations in October of the same year, “the total number of victims worldwide is uncertain…it could be three times(100,000) in some counties alone.” Again, all of these estimates are on the low end. When writing the victims stories in 2018, I would crawl into bed sometimes at 2-3am, mentally and physically exhausted, and weep for people I didn’t even know. I was physically abused as a child at home, and in my Catholic grade school, but not sexually abused. The abuses that these victims suffered at the hands of so-called, “agents of god” were so horrendous in scope and scale, that mentioning my abuse did not seem appropriate. This was the first wave of the shocks that would come. The second hit me closer to the heart. I wanted to sound the alarm by telling my Catholic family members and friends. Most didn’t believe me, many ridiculed me, some even shunned me for life. I was alone and morally outraged.
How Did the Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis Appear?
There are many answers to this question. Sexual abuse of children is a systemic problem that has haunted Europe for millennia and transferred to the Americas when Europeans began migrating West. The senior culprit has to do with the abusive economic systems that the West utilizes. After extensive research on different systems of thought, I have a general suspicion that child sexual abuse was likely present in Native America before the European invasion however I found no evidence of this. Catholic Colonialism under the direction of wealth thirsty Popes and European Monarchs played a huge role in propagating the disease of abusive systems throughout Europe and the Americas. Child exploitation was a part of that package. A brief historical account from the late 19th century may help explain.
In 1896 an up and coming neurologist named Sigmund Freud published an Academic thesis on trauma titled, The Etiology of Hysteria. This research paper illuminated his discovery that “perverted acts against children,” were widely common throughout the whole of society. Being a radical understanding at the time, he thought this would be his ticket to greatness among the medical scholars of Europe. Instead, he was shunned by the upper class medical community that he inhabited. Even though his findings were acutely accurate, his social network was not ready to publicly acknowledge that they or some of their extremely wealthy friends were physically and sexually abusing children. This network financially supported academia and researchers like Freud. He retracted the theories expressed in the paper he wrote, had he not, it would have meant career suicide and possible poverty. Through this story one can easily see how critical economic survival is in such decisions.
It is common knowledge that this tactic of using wealth and institutional status as a weapon against people who promote positive human development is still in play within our society today; in ways that would have made Freud’s head spin. Just ask Fr. Mark White, the previous pastor of two parishes in Southwest Virginia, who has been “suspended” from performing his clerical duties because he openly discussed the clergy sex abuse crisis with his parishioners through a blog post. All he wanted to do was comfort those who were negatively affected by the crises. White’s Bishop Barry Knestout of the Richmond Diocese, a loyal sycophant of child sex criminal and former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, ordered White to shut down the blog site. Fr. White described what happened in an article for NJ.com:
In November 2019, he ordered me to remove my blog from the internet. I initially complied. But when the pandemic hit, I felt it was important to connect with my parishioners online. I resumed posting this past March. In April, the bishop transferred me away from the two towns I know and love to serve as a prison chaplain several hours distant.
Fr. White declined to accept the assignment. The assignment would not only put him several hours away from his parish family, his mother lives in an assisted living facility in the same area. In retaliation, on May 6th, 2020 Bishop Barry Knestout suspended Fr. White from Church ministry.
How many times have I heard Catholics tell me that the Catholic Church is the Church of the family? “If you want to bring happiness to the whole world, go home and love your family,” is a quote that has often been ascribed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. “Insofar as it is a ‘small- scale Church,’ the Christian family is called upon… to be a sign of unity for the world,” Pope John Paul II stated.
Abuse survivors and their advocates are well aware that the AERCC are the destroyers of individuals, families, and family unity, both figuratively and literally. John Pau II and Benedict XVI being two of the worst offenders, as they ignored the repeated reports that priest were raping children for over a quarter of a century.
“Destroyed” is the language that victims, their parents, and health professionals use to describe the abuse that is still happening every day within the Catholic Church.
“I was sexually abused by my parish priest. It not only ruined my life; it also destroyed my family.” survivor Robert Costello wrote.
Bob Burns was sexually abused at age 14 by Thomas O’Rourke, the local Catholic School priest and family friend. When speaking about the destructive nature that clergy abuse levies on individuals in their adolescent years Burns stated, “You’re taking someone at one of the most formative stages of life, (when they are) not able to deal with it, or (during) puberty when so many things are confused, and you’re ripping them to shreds.”
Beth Ward’s son was serially abused by the Springfield, Illinois priest, Joseph Havey from the time he was 10 years old into high school, “The biggest thing that (sexual abuse by a priests) does is destroy the child and the family,” she said.
In the words of psychologist Diane Langberg , “Abuse destroys relationships.” The journalist Beth Miller, who interviewed Dr. Langberg, understands that the effects of abuse go well beyond the events themselves, but damages the future of the abused, “their marriages, their friendships, their families, their faith in God, their trust in people. The effects can extend for generations.” There are hundreds of thousands of stories like these.
As the problem of clergy sex abuse continues, people continue to die. Not only have numerous people been murdered by bishops, priest, and others to cover up the clergy sex abuse horror, suicide rates among the victims is off the charts. Suicides attributed to clergy sex abuse victims is 50 times higher than the rest of the population. When I think of trauma events that mentally, physically, and emotionally devastate a family, immediately and for generations to come, suicide of a family member is somewhere at the top of the list. In one case, at St. Alipius Grade School in Ballarat- Victoria, Australia, 12 of 33 children pictured in a 1973 4th grade class photo committed suicide later in life.
Every aspect of this crisis carries the smell of death and decay with it. Suicides among Roman Catholic Priest involved in the crisis are also on the rise, even among the wrongly accused. News outlets are not in the habit of reporting on individual suicides in general; information from Christian authorities on the suicide rates of ministers is even more rare; here are few reports from United States, Brazil, and Ireland.
Why Isn’t Clergy Sex Abuse “Disappearing?”
The answer to this question comes with a high degree of certainty. It spawns from dozens of historical practices and policies of the AERCC that shed considerable light on the current realities of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Due to the limits of time and space at this juncture, I would not do justice to the afflicted by trying to cover all of the historical practices that caused the current crisis in this writing. This is one in a series of articles that will published on the topic; so I will focus on a few historical practices here.
In the lead up to this discussion it’s important that some facts are clearly stated. Pope Francis, and the other bishops within the Roman Curia that administer the offices of the pope, have no ability to address the clergy sex abuse crisis, nor do a large majority of the bishops across the board. They simply do not have the tools to do it. The abuse will not be stopped by the current administration nor by future administrations of the same caliber. Only The Body of the Church, the laity, and honorable pastors currently have the ability to do this, and they are. Within my sympathetic imagination I envision that eventually The Body will envelop the Church’s head. This isn’t optimism, fantasy, or wishful thinking, this is already happening, slowly, painfully, and progressively, right now.
There would have to be what conservative Catholics consider “radical” changes in Catholic Church doctrine and Cannon Law for the AERCC to appropriately address the crisis. The operating system of the Roman Catholic Church would have to be completely restructured. Even if such changes took place, it would take time to implement them, and two generations for the changes to have significant effect. The Body of the Church doesn’t have time for all that. They need change now. It is their children, their parents, their family members, their parish communities that are at stake, and are currently suffering 99.9% of the devastating consequences of the abuse. They would be fools to put the future of their children, their families, their communities, or their spiritual development in the hands of those who repeatedly betrayed them and continue to do so.
The Seminarian Underground
Most of the AERCC followed the same educational trek that the abusive priest took in their journey to the priesthood. Becoming a Catholic priest today has changed since the mid- 20th Century. Back then it was a passage from adolescence to priesthood. When I was growing up in the 1960’s in Midwestern USA, three of my older brothers left for the seminary after the eighth grade. Most of the families in my neighborhood were Catholic families. Many of their sons did the same. Their parent’s hoped for a priest in the family. Catholic families for centuries had been immersed in the idea that the primary focus was on God. Having a son as a priest would help to maintain that focus. Perhaps it was a remnant of the ancient Jewish Rabbinic understanding that the first born son was to perform the priestly duties of the family.
My oldest brother entered the Pontifical College Josephinum minor seminary in 1963. This is the same seminary that graduated the notorious Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, in 1961. Josephinum already had incidences of sexual abuse previous to my brother’s enrollment and many incidences of abuse and sexual assault after my brother left. Several priests who were educated there were later accused of sexual assault or played a part in shielding abusive priest who were committing sexual assault. Much of this did not become exposed until 40 years later. By this time there were several seminaries in the US that were tagged as places where physical and sexual abuse was prevalent.
Parents and other family members were not meant to be involved in their son’s seminary formation. While my brothers attended, family visits were limited by the seminary administration. In the 4 years that my oldest brother attended Josephinum seminary high school the parents visited once. On that visit they were not allowed to take their son off campus under their parent’s custody. Not being made aware of this until they arrived, my parents were angry and confused but eventually compliant.
Seminarians were not allowed to leave the seminary grounds. In order to discourage this, any money you had on your person when you arrived was confiscated and returned at the end of the year. You were issued seminary tokens if you wanted to buy anything that was sold at the seminary store. Social isolation, rigid control, and demanded obedience were the order of the day for young seminarians. As it turned out, none of the entries into the seminary from our neighborhood of those years became priests.
For those who completed the journey and became ordained as priest the institutional Church was their whole being. They were completely dependent on the Church system and those who occupied the upper tiers of the hierarchy for all their primary and secondary needs. Without the Church they would be totally lost. To ensure the security of their future welfare they had to place their total trust in the hierarchy. At that time, they were oblivious to the fact that placing your livelihood in the hands of people who occupy the highest tiers of any hierarchical structure surrenders any freedom of conscience to the will of whoever occupies the pinnacle of that structure.
Any person from the outside who pierced the walls of this sacred structure or questioned a priest or a bishop’s decisions were considered a threat. Bishops of a diocese were considered to be entrusted with power from God and that they should, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mat. 5:48) People on the outside looking in could too easily find perceived mistakes, and/or cast judgements, and spread the news. To preempt such disruptions all inner workings of the clerics within the institution were shrouded in secrecy. Scandals, such as accusations of child sexual assault by a cleric, a priest fathering a child, homosexuality, or situations where large amounts of money turned up missing sent shock waves to the highest tiers of the pyramid and were immediately and aggressively covered up. Many clerics down the chain of command from the Vatican through the bishops to parish priests were complicit in the cover up for fear of being excommunicated or shunned from the structure; this could leave them destitute, losing the only livelihood they have known since they were 14 years old. Candidates for the priesthood were taught to keep information within the system in their seminary years and were to maintain that position for the rest of their lives.
Ask Marie Collins, an abuse survivor from Ireland who became a champion of abuse survivors and protecting children. She was repeatedly sexually assaulted in the 1960’s by a child pornographer priest named Fr. Paul McGennis when she was 13 years old. For 34 years afterward she suffered the devastating effects of the toxic shame that this priest had levied on her. “I lived a life for over thirty years where just getting from one day to another was a struggle,” she said. At the behest of her doctor to “warn the church about this priest,” she decided to report her abuse to the designated authority in her parish for the first time.
I was very nervous. It would be only the second time I had spoken to anyone about what had happened to me. This priest refused to take the name of my abuser and said he saw no need to report the chaplain. He told me what had happened was probably my fault. This response shattered me.
Later, when this priest was questioned by the police, as to why he would not allow Collins to give him the name of her abuser, he responded, this is “what he had been taught in the seminary.”
Psychosexual Retardation
When one enters an all-male seminary immediately after grade school this excludes them from the female/male interactions with people of the same age group that are typical among the rest of society. These interactions are essential in gaining an understanding of acceptable social norms concerning sexuality. Previous to this stage of adolescence sexuality is still in the realm of mystery for those who have not been subjected to sexual trauma during their childhood. Josephinum Seminary had a strict “no dating” policy. Celibacy was already instilled as part of the vocational path seminarians had chosen. This was relatively common among most seminaries of that time.
During my grade school years of the late 60’s early 70’s Catholic clerical educators taught that psychological problems were the product of sin that could be remedied by confessing your sins to a priest with a renewed determination to avoid the sin in the future. This was the favored corrective measure used by bishops for priest who had committed acts of sexual abuse. Psychological motivations of the priest were typically not considered.1 Seeking psychiatric or psychological help was only condoned in cases of extreme chemical unbalance (e.g. schizophrenia).
After the close of the Vatican II Council in 1965 priests, seminarians, and congregants began leaving the Church. It’s estimated that over 100,000 priest’s left religious life between 1965 and 1990.2 Concerned over the lack of incoming seminary candidates to compensate for the priest void, as early as 1970 AERCC leaders began commissioning psychological evaluations of the priesthood. Supposedly, clear explanations would initiate effective remedies.
There had already been a workshop for psychologists assessing candidates for the priesthood in 1966 that took place in New York. In this workshop psychologist quoted a recently completed study that found out of 107 candidates,
8% of these were sexually deviant, whereas 70% were described as psychosexually immature, exhibiting traits of heterosexual retardation, confusion concerning sexual role, and fear of sexuality, effeminacy, and potential homosexual dispositions.
The commissioned studies showed that significant psychological and emotional problems were still present long after candidates became priests in the US.3 One study completed in 1971 and presented to a Synod of Bishops at the Vatican came from two psychiatrists who had treated 1500 priests in over a 40 year period. Their results included alarming data stating that 1 in 4 priests in North America had serious psychiatric difficulties while 70% suffered from emotional immaturity.4
Another study completed in 1972 showed that only 7% of the priests in the US were psychologically developed in agreement with their age. The same study saw 8% as “Maldeveloped”, meaning severely psychologically impaired. This number closely resembles the profile percentage of predator priest who sexually abused children and adolescents.5
The studies in general concurred that most priests functioned at a psychological level consistent with that of a pre-adolescent.6 This indicates that when they entered the seminary after grade school psychological development, in particular psychosexual development, had stopped. When a priest whose own psychological development is frozen abuses children, he passes the disease to the child, causing the victims themselves to become psychologically locked. This opens the door to the possibility of the victim becoming a future abuser.
In an article titled Reflections of a Recovering Priest which was attached to a 1995 recommendations publication for the US Bishops named Restoring Trust, the anonymous author describes his arrested development:
I entered the seminary at 14 years of age. In many ways the seminary picked up where my family left off. (In that) The subject of sexuality had remained largely unaddressed. When I was 20 years old I realized I was attracted to young adolescent males. Up to this time I had been able to characterize my attraction as some form of latent homosexuality. By age 20 it was clear that I kept getting older but the persons I found attractive remained 12-15 year old males. I was afraid to mention the nature of my sexual attraction to anyone in authority at the seminary because I feared it would result in my not being ordained… I denied the fact of my desire for boys to reduce the internal dissonance I felt. I wanted very badly to be a priest. I also was very ashamed and frightened by my sexual orientation.7
A hyperlink to the whole article can be accessed at the foot note below.
All of these studies included recommendations from seasoned mental health professionals to address the obvious problems. One doctor who participated in the studies, when reviewing the bishop’s reactions wrote:
The most distressing aspect of this study is that the signs of crisis, or distress, of immaturity, of human and spiritual need were ignored. Few if any steps were taken to assist the American priests. In individual dioceses bishops surely did make some changes. …But I could find no evidence that the NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops) initiated discussions on the findings… made any attempts to follow through on suggestions made, to respond to the needs of their struggling priests, to address the questions raised by the study or to urge bishops to attempt diocesan responses to the institutional call for setting priorities. One cannot help but think that perhaps the abuse crisis might have been identified earlier if more had been done to assist priests who were crying out for attention and help.8
This has repeatedly been the posture assumed by the bishops since the abuse crisis became exposed. Bishops who suffer from their own psychosexual retardation have no capability to address priests with the same affliction. Keep in mind the conclusions from these studies were well known by the Vatican bishops as well as US Bishops previous to the sexual violations of predator priests that occurred after 1972. There is little doubt that some of these violations, if not many of them, could have been avoided if they had begun actively removing accused priests from the ministry at that time. To be clear, priest who have abused children in any fashion have no business being employed in a job that would allow them access to children.
Repeat Performances
Shortly after Pope Francis was elected in March of 2013, he chose a council of Cardinals to assist in governing the Church. Three of those chosen, George Pell, Francisco Ossa, and Oscar Maradiaga, had long been known to be protectors of sexually abusive priests. Maradiaga was appointed as the head of the Pope’s governing council. Pell, who was tapped to be the Vatican Secretary of the Treasury, eventually took a leave of absence to face civil proceedings in Australia for a 40 year history of abuse allegations against him, and for concealing abusive priests.
Pope Francis promoted two bishops, Gerhard Mueller and Riccardo Ezzati, to Cardinals shortly after his election; both of whom had lengthy histories of shielding sexually abusive clergy. Mueller was the chief of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith which has the obligation of addressing clergy child abuse allegations. These bishops had nothing to gain and everything to lose by pursuing investigations into sexually abusive priests; as these investigations could lead to information that would expose their own involvement.
Spiritual Abuse
During the 35 year reign of Popes John Paul II (JPII) and Benedict XVI (Oct. 1978 to Feb. 2013), the Church entered a dark era in which a minority of ecclesial authorities attempted suffocate the spiritual development of the faithful while simultaneously reinforcing antiquated doctrines that spawned from a psychosexually retarded mindset. (This statement, in part, is in reference to doctrines set forth by Augustine of Hippo and his minions which I will address in a forth coming article.)
To the point of stifling spiritual evolution, previous to Benedict’s papal election, he served as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith under JPII. Identified at that time as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, he issued a document on 05.24.90 titled, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, which was approved by JPII. This document enunciated that Ratzinger and the Vatican elites disapproved of dissenting theologians discussing their opinions in a public forum, and stated that there was, “serious harm done to the community of the Church by attitudes of general opposition to Church teaching.” The document continues:
Indeed, when dissent succeeds in extending its influence to the point of shaping; a common opinion, it tends to become the rule of conduct. This cannot but seriously trouble the People of God and lead to contempt for true authority.
The document highlights a language of patriarchal enslavement denouncing the questioning of papal authority or church doctrine. The word “authority” is mentioned on thirteen occasions within the writing; the word “obedience” is used six times, with the document stating that in the cases of magisterial authority,
the response called for is that of the religious submission of will and intellect. (Para.23)
The willingness to submit loyally to the teaching of the Magisterium on matters per se not irreformable must be the rule. (Para.24)
Even if the doctrine of the faith is not in question, the theologian will not present his own opinions or divergent hypotheses as though they were non-arguable conclusions. Respect for the truth as well as for the People of God requires this discretion. For the same reasons, the theologian will refrain from giving untimely public expression to them. (Para. 27)
The theologian should avoid turning to the “mass media”… for it is not by seeking to exert the pressure of public opinion that one contributes to the clarification of doctrinal issues. (Para. 30) (Emphasis added)
Over the next 23 years through Benedict’s influence theologians who explored enlightening ideas that promoted social justice, protected the innocent, and served the forgotten of our society were attacked. Hundreds of priests, nuns, and deacons were punished, silenced, or expelled. This was an extreme betrayal to many who sat in pews of Catholic churches each Sunday. It was a double extreme betrayal for those who suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of clerics who traded in their moral compass to pay homage to an ethically bankrupt institution. Some of those victims paid with their lives. A partial list of these pastoral leaders is attached at the end of this writing.
The Dominican friar Matthew Fox who was silenced by Pope Benedict in 1988, and eventually expelled from the Dominican Order and all Catholic educational facilities in 1993, had this to say upon Pope Benedict’s resignation in February 2013:
It was a breath of fresh air to hear that the pope has chosen to step down, the first pope in 7 centuries to do so. What he and his predecessor wrought to the Catholic Church as we know it is nothing short of devastation. But as a Christian I see their 42 [sic] year reign as so destroying the church we know that now the Holy Spirit can give birth to a community far more attuned to the revolutionary Gospel of Jesus than the current and dying structures ever could be. Those structures are as passe as the Berlin Wall.
The link above takes you to a page where Fox goes into great detail in documenting some of the tragic happenings that befell Catholics during the reigns of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It’s definitely worth a read.
Theological Abuse, the Abuse of the Mind
“God the Punitive Father is not a God worth honoring but a false god and an idol that serves empire-builders… ‘All the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves.’ (Meister Eckhart) Thus people who worship a punitive father are themselves punitive.”
Matthew Fox –95 Thesis
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb.10:31)
To give intellectual grounds for resuscitating the antiquated doctrines of religious enslavement to the institutional church, doctrines that had long become morally bankrupt, non-functional, and physically unhealthy, the AERCC Popes and Bishops enforced a one theology church. This theology was called Apologetics or Atonement theology, which defends the idea of god as judge and punisher. Since those who worship a punishing god become punishers themselves, that’s exactly what the elites did.
To appreciate the psychological dynamic, Apologetic theology defends the Church’s doctrine of Original Sin. This doctrine has its roots in the Catholic tradition but the protestant reformers adopted the precepts as well. This doctrine claims that all humans are sinners from the time they are conceived and are born with a moral defect. As the theory goes, this sin was inherited from the first man, Adam, who originally disobeyed god in the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The Catechism of the Catholic Church issues the incriminating statement that, “all men are implicated in Adam’s sin.”
In the story, when god becomes aware that Adam disobeyed him, the lord casts judgment on Adam and punishes the man by separating him from the immediate presence of god. According to Church doctrine, there was only one way that Adam and his descendants (the human race) could reunite with their lord. Reunification required god’s own son, Jesus to become human and to be brutally abused, tortured, and executed, as a “sacrifice to god.” The son’s willingness to do this is understood as an act of love; “Out of love…Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death” In this, violence, abuse, and love become merged into a distorted and confusing ball of wax as though the terms are synonymous and function simultaneously.
Using this theological frame, Christians large and small are called to emulate god and god’s son, Jesus. Bishops, priests, pastors, and congregants, whether identified as abusers or abused, are only acting out their assigned roles in the name of love as they comply with the will of an abusive god. Abusers mimic the godhead depicted in the Adam and Eve story, or the people who, at god’s demand for divine justice, carry out the execution of Jesus depicted in the Gospel accounts. The abused mimic the suffering servant Jesus, who accepts the abuse willingly out of love for his father and the abuser(s).
The Christian theologian Bishop John Spong In his sermon Why Atonement Theology Will Kill Christianity, describes the logical progression of this doctrine starkly claiming that it portrays god as an unforgiving, sadistic “monster, a demon” and the “original child abuser.” Continuing the progression, Jesus becomes a masochist who enjoys suffering and being a perpetual victim. What is at the front and center of every traditional Catholic Church one enters? The portrayal of Jesus being crucified. There was a crucifix hanging in practically every room of the house I grew up in. Jesus is seldom allowed off of his cross. The clergy and congregants become “guilt filled zombies” who are condemned to repeatedly abuse and be abused as they bow in worship to this punitive god.
The current crisis of child abuse and the domination over women, men, and children within our society are an echo of this theology that Church representatives taught its congregants to believe for centuries, and still teach today. These ideas have been so deeply embedded in Christian culture in the US, and by association into other parts of the culture, that people almost without notice have accepted and repeated the learned behaviors throughout their lives.
The violence, abuse, and love distortion is clearly depicted in the testimonies of the abuse survivors. This is where you come to the conclusion that the effects of this teaching are indeed diabolical. Fr. Thomas Economus, a powerful survivors advocate, was sexually molested as a boy by Fr. Don Murray on a regular basis. The violations continued for 3 ½ years at a school for troubled boys in Sky Ranch, South Dakota during the 1970’s. At 17 the molestation became forced rape. In an interview with PBS Frontline, Economist recalled his psychological state at 17 after being forcibly assaulted by Murry for the first time.
For me, at the time, I was very confused. Because on one hand, I very much loved this priest. He was very good to me, in that he took me on trips, and he bought me clothes, and he was very affectionate and very loving. And then there was this other side of him that was very violent and very brutal. But I also knew that as long as I kept quiet, then the good things that he did for me would kind of balance or outshine this horrible secret that I was keeping.
Like others before him, Economus still held a few ounces of belief in the clerical agents of the Catholic Church. At age 21 he sought help from a psychologist priest in Chicago. After nine appointments with the councilor, he was forcibly raped by the psychologist in the following session.
In the Frontline interview Economus details the reckless behavior of Fr. Murray. Don Murray was a dangerous “out of control” alcoholic with a history of life threatening negligence. His superiors were well aware of his alcoholism, abuse, and behavior but failed to intervene. On one occasion Murray was driving his car as it went off the road and two boys were killed. On October 11th in 1975, Fr. Murray, a licensed airplane pilot, piloted a plane that took off with three Sky Ranch boys as passengers. One of the passengers was Thomas Economus’ brother. Shortly after take-off the plane nosedived into the ground killing Murray and two of the passengers, Economus’ brother was mangled but survived. The FFA report stated that Fr. Murray was 3 times over the legal alcohol limit when he entered the plane.
A Microscopic View of Clergy Sexuality
In conclusion I feature excerpts and commentary from an interview that was conducted in 2011 by Dr. Laurent Schley of Luxemburg with A.W. Richard Sipe who passed away in August of 2018. The information provided still sheds light on the gap between what we are told by Church authorities and what is the reality on the ground concerning the sexual behavior of Roman Catholic Clergy.
Baltimore psychotherapist A.W. Richard Sipe, was a former benedictine monk who has spent 25 years researching celibacy and sexual abuse among priests. According to his website, “he served as a consultant or expert witness in 250 cases of clergy abuse of minors and other clergy professional malfeasance in the United States and Canada, 1988-2011; and (was)deposed 45 times.”
In a Preliminary Expert Report published on the Bishops Accountability website, Richard Sipe provided more detail about his extensive hands on experience regarding clergy sex abuse with in the RCC:
Over the years I have had a therapist/patient or consultative relationship with over 1,000 Catholic clerics and over 500 persons with whom Catholic clerics have acted out sexually. I have conducted extensive research, counseling, interviews and reviews of case histories of 2,700 sexually active clerics and 2,000 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clerics.
According to the most recent figures available from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in 2018 there were 37,302 Catholic Priest in the United States.
Sipes research that concluded in 1985 indicates that, “no more than half of Catholic clergy professing celibacy were actually practicing sexual abstinence.” In a May 1993 press conference in Rome, the acting Chairman of the Dicastery on Clergy Cardinal Hose Sanchez, when asked about Sipe’s conclusions told reporters, “I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of those figures.”
In the interview with Dr. Schley, Sipe goes on to state that, “The most reliable estimates of abusing Catholic clergy in the U.S. now run between 6 and 9 percent, with many dioceses recording 10 percent.” This leaves the number of priests sexually abusing minors in the US anywhere between 2238 to 3730 for the US. In some of the Diocese the numbers are as high as 23%; in religious houses they climb to 25%.9 For those Catholic parishioners who think that this isn’t still going on in 2024, you can read for yourselves.
In paragraph five of the transcript from the interview Sipe draws a direct link between Catholic teachings on sexuality and the crimes committed by abusive priests. When you have psychosexually retarded clerical authorities defining appropriate sexual behavior for their congregations and claiming that their words come straight from the mouth of god, these are the results. I quote the paragraph at length because Sipes’ conclusions clearly reflect the frustrations that many Catholics (priests included) have expressed to me over the last 30 years.
The idea that the Catholic Church knows and defines the intrinsic nature of sex is not correct… the scientifically unfounded and distorted teachings about human sexual development and nature the Vatican holds cannot be sustained by reason. A large proportion of priests and a great number of lay Catholics cannot assent to its moral conclusion. The assertions that all sexual activity outside of a legitimate marriage is mortally sinful is as unreasonable as it is to assert that the sun revolves around the earth.
… the tangle of issues that clog the agenda of the Catholic Church and keep it from productive leadership and credible action… all have to do with sex: abortion, contraception, masturbation, sex before marriage or after divorce, homosexuality, artificial insemination, the requirement of celibacy for ordination, the ordination of women to the priesthood, and a married priesthood.
Refusal to dialogue about the reality of human sexuality leaves Catholic priests in the untenable position of having to teach what they cannot live, believe or defend.
When priests are prohibited from any form of sexual expression, compulsive sexual episodes that seek instant gratification are to be expected. As stated earlier these priests desperately need help in deprograming the sexually repressive conditioning they received during their indoctrination. The “rock and hard place” position they are placed in is not only non-functional, it presents a clear and present danger for the human “objects” of their obsession. Sipe goes on to state that the Church’s, “Dependence on the secrecy of the sacrament of penance to hide violations and assure easy forgiveness facilitates repetition and recidivism of sex crimes rather than reform of behavior.”
One of the most significant takeaways from the voluminous body of work that Sipe presents is that the AERCC issues doctrinal demands upon their congregations that they themselves could never adhere to. Each prohibition, if not followed, carries the threat of an eternity in torturous anguish in Hell. This alone is psychologically destructive to anyone who sincerely believes it. One only needs to review the hundreds of thousands of testimonies of the victims of abusive clergy from across the globe to determine that the perpetrators were poignantly efficient in injecting a real and devastating lifelong hell in each victims minds. Apparently the clerical elites have concluded that due to their service to a non-human, dysfunctional institution, they each have “get out of Hell free” card pinned to their souls.
Here are some examples of the gap between the preached and the practiced:
“Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2352)
Sipe: “Most priests (90%) abstain from sex periodically. At any one time 50% are sexually active in a variety of behaviors. Masturbation is the most common and most frequent sexual activity across the board among priests and bishops.”
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“Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication (defined as intercourse between consenting adults of the opposite sex), impurity, licentiousness… I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 1852)
Sipe: For priests, “Involvement with women is prevalent either experimentally or in sequential affairs, or with one companion.”
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“Sacred Scripture… presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2357)
“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 1985, Paragraph 3)
Sipe: “Repeated studies indicate that 30% (of priest) have a homosexual orientation. Informed sources declare that this is true also of bishops in the United States. Several knowledgeable and well respected priests claim that 50% of men in seminaries and novitiates today qualify for this categorization. Because gay orientation is common across the board the priesthood is popularly considered a gay profession… Many saints, popes and bishops can be counted among the homosexual population.” (Richard Sipe, Luxemburg Interview, Para, 17)
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“Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2354)
Sipe: “Many clergy try to satisfy sexual curiosity via pornography; the Internet sex is new and fertile source of preoccupation for some priests.”
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Much of what is presented here would not have been possible without the painstaking research of people like Tom P. Doyle, an inactive American Catholic priest who holds a doctorate in Canon Law, Fr. Michael R. Peterson (deceased), who was a Doctor of Psychiatry, and Richard Sipe (deceased), former priest and Clinical Mental Health Counselor. All of these dedicated the bulk of their lives to honestly addressing the causes and remedies of Roman Catholic Priests physically and sexually assaulting children. It is important to remember that, if not for the work of people like David Clohessy, Marie Collins, Barbara Blaine, Robert Hoatson, and thousands of others, there would have been NO CHANGES initiated by the AERCC.
My heart goes out to those who have carried the bulk of the traumatic weight associated with this catastrophe, that being the spiritually betrayed victims. They are the ones who stood up, and in so many ways answered the urgent call of the Spirit of Life in a manner that was beyond the reach of the institutional Church. In their tenacity they jerked back their dreams of wholeness from the clutches of the clerical demons who had stolen them, and walked with integrity toward a new life experience where respect for their mental, emotional, and physical person was unquestioned and a matter of course. If you want to go where the Spirit of peace resides follow these. This is where the Spirit is free to do its work and abundant life flourishes.
Guy Schell © 2024