115: The Truth About the Priest Abuse Data—Father Paul Sullins, PhD

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This is the first in a series on the roots of the priestly abuse scandal. I know, a sad and depressing topic. But we have to “go there” if we want to “get there.”

Father Paul Sullins, PhD, author and professor emeritus of sociology at the Catholic University of America, has done us all a huge favor. He has collated and made sense of the data drawn from the John Jay Report, the data from the USCCB, the 2002 Los Angeles Times poll about homosexual priests, the data of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Reports, and intel from CARA (Center for Applied Research In the Apostolate).

It’s all in one place, a study done in collaboration with The Ruth Institute. Get the link below. His findings are stunning and sobering.

 

In this episode you will learn

• Approximately how many boys would NOT have had their lives badly damaged by homosexual priests had the ratio of homosexuals in the priesthood had not skyrocketed from 1950-1980s.
• Why we need to boldly tell the truth about the real causes of the crisis
• The approximate proportion of priests today between 65 and 85 who are homosexual
• Why the crisis is not about clericalism
• Solid facts to back up bad logic and anti-Catholic arguments about celibacy, and the truth of what has happened in the last 50 years regarding predator behavior among some priests

 

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Study by Father Paul Sullins, “Is Catholic clergy sexual abuse related to homosexual priests?”
• Evolving Visions Of The Priesthood: Changes from Vatican II to the Turn of the New Century by Dean R. Hoge
• Center for Applied Research In the Apostolate website
• The Changing Face Of The Priesthood: A Reflection on the Priest's Crisis of Soul by Donald Cozzens
• Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse In the Catholic Church by Leon Podles

 

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