AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
September 13, 2017
By Joanne McCarthy
Celibacy a key risk factor in child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, report finds
A groundbreaking Australian study describes child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as a global tragedy
MANDATORY celibacy, the denigration of women and the Catholic Church’s “deeply homophobic environment” are key factors in the church’s global child sexual abuse tragedy, a ground-breaking Australian research study by two former Catholic priests has found.
Mandatory celibacy “remains the major precipitating risk factor for child sexual abuse”, Dr Peter Wilkinson and Professor Des Cahill of RMIT University’s Centre for Global Research found after a five-year study into systemic reasons for child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
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