Since 2002, a major focus of the lawsuits and media attention has been criticism of the approach taken by bishops when dealing with allegations of sexual abuse by priests. As a general rule, the allegations were not reported to legal authority for investigation and prosecution. Instead, many dioceses directed the offending priests to seek psychiatric treatment and for assessment of the risk of re-offending. In 2004, according to the John Jay report, nearly 40% of accused priests participated in psychiatric treatment programs. The remaining priests did not undergo abuse counseling because allegations of sexual abuse were only made after their death. The more allegations made against a priest, the more likely he was to participate in treatment.
[304]
Some bishops repeatedly moved offending priests from parish to parish after abuse counseling, where they still had personal contact with children.
[9] According to the USCCB, Catholic bishops in the 1950s and 1960s viewed sexual abuse by priests as "a spiritual problem, one requiring a spiritual solution, i.e. prayer".
[364]
However, starting in the 1960s, the bishops came to adopt an emerging view based on the advice of medical personnel who recommended psychiatric and psychological treatment for those who sexually abused minors. This view asserted that with treatment, priests who had molested children could safely be placed back into ministry, although perhaps with certain restrictions such as not being in contact with children.
[365] This approach viewed
pedophilia as an addiction, such as
alcoholism which can be treated and restrained.
[364]
Some of the North American treatment facilities most frequently used for this purpose included the
Saint Luke Institute in Maryland; centers operated by the
Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, and St. Louis, Missouri; John Vianney Center in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.; the
Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut; and the Southdown Institute near Toronto, Ontario, in Canada.
[366] This approach continued into the mid-1980s, a period which the USCCB characterizes as the "tipping point in the understanding of the problem within the church and in society".
[364] According to researcher Paul Isley, however, research on priest offenders is virtually nonexistent and the claims of unprecedented treatment success with clergy offenders have not been supported by published data.
[367]
Prevention efforts
[
edit]
The USCCB perceived a lack of adequate procedures for the prevention of sexual abuse of minors, the reporting of allegations of such abuse and the handling of those reports. In response to deficiencies in canonical and secular law, both ecclesiastical and civil authorities have implemented procedures and laws to prevent sexual abuse of minors by clergy and to report and punish it if and when it occurs. In June 2002, the USCCB adopted a
zero tolerance policy to future sex abuse that required responding to allegations of sexual abuse.
[368] It promulgated a
Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that pledged the Catholic Church in the U.S. to providing a "safe environment" for all children in Church-sponsored activities.
[368]
The Charter instituted reforms to prevent future abuse by requiring
background checks for Church employees.
[369] The Charter requires dioceses faced with an allegation to alert the authorities, conduct an investigation and remove the accused from duty.
[369] A
Dallas Morning News article reported nearly two-thirds of the bishops attending the conference had covered for sexually abusive priests.
[370] According to
Catholic News Service by 2008, the U.S. church had trained "5.8 million children to recognize and report abuse," run criminal checks on volunteers and employees and trained them to create a safe environment for children.
[371]
Analysing the results of prevention reforms implemented in the 1990s and 2000s, the John Jay report from May 2011 found a "marked decrease in the incidence and a sustained suppression of abusive behavior" in the 1980s, and stated that sexual abuse in the Catholic Church declined sharply in the 1980s and continued to decline in the 1990s and 2000s.
[372] The report recorded 975 sexual abuse cases by Catholic priests between 1985 and 1989, 253 between 1995 and 1999, and 73 for the years 2004–2008. According to the report, there have been "continuing very low levels of sexual abuse of minors" in the Catholic Church ever since the early 2000s;
[373] The report also stated that though "more cases of sexual abuse continue to be reported to dioceses today, almost all of these allegations are of abuse that occurred decades earlier."
[374] A majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church involve incidents that occurred between 1950 and 1969; the overwhelming majority of these cases involve priests who were ordained before 1970. In comparison, less than 2% of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church concerned priests ordained after 1989.
[372]
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