Child Sexual Abuse - Is it just Christian

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This document seeks to discuss the effect of Celibacy on Child Sexual abuse numbers. A doctrine held by the Catholic Church, that prevents priests, and brothers from marrying. This document does not link Celibacy directly to abuse, but shows that abuse numbers are high in the Catholic Church accounting for just over 60% of all reported abuses to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse(*2). I put forward the thought that priestly Celibacy may well be a contributing factor to the Catholic Churches high abuse numbers, being one of the main distinguishing features of that religion that differ to other religious groups. I also wish to show that Protestant Churches, have lower abuse numbers, than the Catholic Church, for priestly abuse, based upon their respective portion of the population, this is done to show that Celibacy may be at play in abuse. You will also notice in the case of schools (that are not boarding schools), that abuse numbers between Independent Schools, and Public Schools have similar statistical numbers of abuse victims, meaning there is little difference between the religious, and non-religious portion, suggesting that blanket statement that “religion is to blame for Child Sexual abuse”, may be untrue.


I stated previously that I felt that abuse numbers were higher in the Catholic church due to mandatory Celibacy, to put forward this case I look at the statistics were taken from Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

First we start by showing abuse numbers in the Anglican Church, Australia’s largest Protestant denomination are approximately equal to the percentage of people they service, the Anglican church in the last census held in 2016 (*1) accounted for 13.3% of the population and 14.7% of abuse cases (*2), approximately equal, which you would expect. You would expect the number of cases to be divided evenly, by the percentage of the population they serviced. The denomination that I am a part of The Pentecostal Movement makes up 1% of the population, but accounts for only 37 cases, out of 4029 cases, or 0.91% approximately 1%. In these cases we see a trend, the abuse in these protestant churches, is approximately equal to the percentage of the population they make up, to that level they offend. Yet looking at the Catholic portion of the population it was 22.6% in 2006 (*1) but accounted for 61.8% percent of abuse cases (*2). You would expect the Catholic Church to have its abuse cases to be around 20% but it accounts for 60% of all cases. The catholic church having an extra 40% on top of other similar organizations 2/3 higher in abuse cases. We do see higher instances of Abuse in the Salvation Army accounting for only 0.2% of the population (*1), but having 7.3% cases of abuse (*2), 7.3 per cent told us about perpetrators who were people in religious ministry (1%), the others were, residential care workers (46.4 per cent) or housemasters (20.1 per cent). But what we see here is that the Salvation Army has high abuse rates based upon the type of work they are performing, residential care, and houses. But there is a difference between the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church has 67% of offences by religious workers, where we see the Salvation army only had 7.3% of offences by people in religious ministry, although it is true that the Catholic Church also takes part in similar projects to the Salvation Army, such as orphanages. The breakdown of catholic abuses is shown below:


597 or 32 percent were religious brothers,

572 or 30 percent were priests,

543 or 29 percent were lay people,

96 or 5 percent were religious sisters,



But what I will further show is that abuse numbers are high in general Catholic activities. To do this we will switch to schools.

When we look at schools we see:

Three-quarters (75.9 per cent) said they were abused in non-government schools, of which 73.8 per cent identified a Catholic school and 26.4 per cent identified an Independent school(*3).


In 2016, 14 percent (3.37 million) of Australia's 23.40 million population were school students. Of these, 15 percent attended Independent schools, 21 percent went to Catholic schools and the remaining 64 percent were government school students (*4).

Now we are going to return to the Royal Commissions report on schools (*3). But to do this we need to look at it through two different lenses. Firstly we will present the stats with no alterations, as listed in the Royal Commission report, then we will make a second view with Boarding Schools removed. For the stats do not show a representative sample in their raw view, as Public Schools, are for the most part not boarding schools. Boarding Schools we will see skew the figures to make it look like abuse is extremely low comparatively in Public Schools.

So let’s take a look with boarding schools included. We use both population density, and abuse percentage to determine approximate abuse rates on average.

Independent Schools 20% of cases 15% of population (1.3333 ratio) 30.8%
Public Schools 24% of cases 64% of population (0.375 ratio) 8.67%
Catholic Schools 55% of cases 21% of population (2.619) 60.52%

If we look at the figures with Boarding schools included we see both religious portions appear higher than the public sector in abuse cases. 30% Independent Schools (Including religious schools), 60% catholic, and only 8.6%. If this stat were taken at face value you would think abuse was extremely high in religious organizations as compared to secular organizations, being two times higher.


But let’s remove boarding schools and deal with a basic school.

Almost one in three (30.4 per cent) said they were abused in a boarding school setting, of which 96.8 per cent told us it was a non-government boarding school and 3.2 per cent identified a government boarding school. Of the non-government boarding schools, 57.0 per cent identified a Catholic school and 43.2 per cent identified an Independent school (*3).

29.4272 – Total no- government abuse percentage in boarding schools, 12.7125 – independent school, 16.7146496 – catholic boarding school

0.9728 – Total government boarding school abuse


The Independent school sector is by far the largest provider of boarding schools in Australia, with some 145 schools providing boarding facilities for over 15,500 students. (*4) or 0.469% Because exact numbers of students in boarding schools are hard to find, and include adolescents, we will retain the existing population percentages.

If we look at a standard school (having removed all boarding school cases), we see:

Independent Schools 7.29% of cases 15% of population (0.486 ratio) 18%
Public Schools 23% of cases 64% of population (0.359 ratio) 13%
Catholic Schools 38.28% of cases 21% of population (1.819 ratio) 68.2%


We see that Independent and Public schools come much closer together, suggesting, although the public sector seems slightly better at Child protection, there is not a vast difference to Independent Schools that do not have students living on premises 18% to 13% in favor of public schools.


From these stats we see boarding schools accounts for a large increase in child sexual abuse in Independent Schools. When we remove boarding schools, we see: Independent Schools (non-catholic) is slightly higher than public schools in abuse cases, but not by a large margin 18% of all cases, to the public sector or 13%. Catholic Schools increase in abuse cases to 68% of all cases. This is important to recognize, as religion (in general) is not, in the case of schools, a large separating or driving factor in student abuse. However having removed Boarding Schools, we see the Catholic portion of abuse increases to 68.2%. This suggests that something other than close proximity to children is at play in the abuse numbers in the Catholic Church in a general school environment.

I suggest that the primary difference between the Catholic Religion, and it’s Protestant Independent portion is priestly Celibacy.



*1 Wikipedia - Religion in Australa (Accessed 2021) Religion in Australia - Wikipedia

*2 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Religious Institutions (Accessed 2021) Religious institutions | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

*3 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Schools (Accessed 2021) Schools | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

*4 The Independent School Student - A Demographic Profile (Accessed 2021) http://isa.edu.au/wp-content/upload...School-Student-A-Demographic-Profile-2016.pdf
 
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Quid est Veritas?

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So a number of studies have shown that the prevalence of sexual abuse of minors is related to the nature of the institution. The more institutionalised and hierarchical, the greater the prevalence. A noted one from Germany attached below, where the abuse was comparable between Catholic schools and secular ones.

Research on Child Sexual Abuse in Institutions in German-Speaking Countries: A Summary

Similarly, the greatest paedophile scandal in recent years was the Boy Scouts. There are more than 100 000 claiming to have been abused over the last 40 years, as opposed to about 11 000 in the previous Catholic scandal. In the end, the amount of priests that are suspected of abuse amounts to about 6% of the total.

Paedophiles and psychopaths will worm their way into any structure, and how effective they are is due to how much control that structure has or defensive it acts. Protestant churches are not immune, but neither is any human institution. Those who act selfishly and unfeelingly seek to harm others for their own ends, are no respectors of the background of those institutions. There are more Catholic abuse victims because that church has a more hierarchical and strict structure; similarly to how cults quickly devolve into nests of abuse around their all-powerful leadership; but the Catholic church is not otherwise more susceptible on grounds of doctrine. As noted, strict boarding schools have a similar prevalence, and the Boy Scouts similarly delivered youths into the hands of abusers to a greater extent.
 
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HARK!

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MOD HAT ON

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MOD HAT OFF
 
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bèlla

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The proliferation of sexual abuse in the church reveals a dearth of wisdom and discernment. If we selected leaders with the Holy Spirit’s guidance we wouldn’t be in this position. Man looks at the outside but God knows the heart. We keep forgetting that.

Yours in His Service,

~bella
 
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Tolworth John

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Abuse whether child, sexual, spiritual, financial or for any other reason is more likely to happen when an organisation is more worried about its reputation than the harm being done to the vunerable, or where practices are secretive and in clear.

Look at your own church and ask how are large purchases shown in the annual accounts and who authorises them? Do you as church members get to see the accounts?

It is the same with all other abuse, if there is no clear responciblity of the church leaders to show what they have done, then abuse will always be there and kept hidden.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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So a number of studies have shown that the prevalence of sexual abuse of minors is related to the nature of the institution. The more institutionalised and hierarchical, the greater the prevalence. A noted one from Germany attached below, where the abuse was comparable between Catholic schools and secular ones.

This is true. As we see in the Salvation Army.

We do see higher instances of Abuse in the Salvation Army accounting for only 0.2% of the population (*1), but having 7.3% cases of abuse (*2), 7.3 per cent told us about perpetrators who were people in religious ministry (1%), the others were, residential care workers (46.4 per cent) or housemasters (20.1 per cent). But what we see here is that the Salvation Army has high abuse rates based upon the type of work they are performing, residential care, and houses.


Research on Child Sexual Abuse in Institutions in German-Speaking Countries: A Summary

Similarly, the greatest paedophile scandal in recent years was the Boy Scouts. There are more than 100 000 claiming to have been abused over the last 40 years, as opposed to about 11 000 in the previous Catholic scandal. In the end, the amount of priests that are suspected of abuse amounts to about 6% of the total.

Will look these up sometime.
 
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Paidiske

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Muriel Porter's book Sex, Power and the Clergy is a good exploration of a lot of this too. One of the things which stood out to me in that book is that research had found that while Catholic priests had a higher proportion of child abuse, clergy of other denominations abused just as much... but often their abuse was often of vulnerable adults. There was a suggestion that this reflected patterns of what sort of vulnerable people were more available in different settings.

Personally, after all the reading I've done, I don't believe celibacy is the issue. Because this isn't really about sex at all; it's about power, and all the ways twisted power dynamics play themselves out. We need to pay much more attention to our cultures and theologies of power, and how those shape and warp our souls and behaviours.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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Muriel Porter's book Sex, Power and the Clergy is a good exploration of a lot of this too. One of the things which stood out to me in that book is that research had found that while Catholic priests had a higher proportion of child abuse, clergy of other denominations abused just as much... but often their abuse was often of vulnerable adults. There was a suggestion that this reflected patterns of what sort of vulnerable people were more available in different settings.

Personally, after all the reading I've done, I don't believe celibacy is the issue. Because this isn't really about sex at all; it's about power, and all the ways twisted power dynamics play themselves out. We need to pay much more attention to our cultures and theologies of power, and how those shape and warp our souls and behaviours.

Now many of my stats a generalization, taking stats from Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and filtering it through the current day (2016) population statistics, this technically is not 100% accurate, as the stats from the royal Commission span various years. However, using these estimates, and quasi maths, we do see a quite large percentage of abuse in the Catholic Church, as compared to other denominations, and groups. But I am open to being corrected if this is not the case, in other studies. But I would suggest that the Royal Commissions' data is valuable, being one of the few in-depth studies of abuse.

To stress my point that celibacy may be an issue, the following example shows a massive difference between the Catholic and non-catholic portion of abuse. Now again I stress these are quasi statistics, for there may be other issues at play. But it is probably not far off the mark, using known statistical numbers. The Commission found on average the catholic abuse accounted for 60% total. Although the stat below is 8% higher than the average level, it was built using known abuse averages in schools, but like I say run through current day school population numbers. Now the reality is in the past the catholic church may have run a greater number of schools, which would pull the abuse numbers down. But there is still a general trend of high abuse among children.

If we look at a standard school (having removed all boarding school cases), we see:

Independent Schools 7.29% of cases 15% of population (0.486 ratio) 18%
Public Schools 23% of cases 64% of population (0.359 ratio) 13%
Catholic Schools 38.28% of cases 21% of population (1.819 ratio) 68.2%
 
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Paidiske

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My point was that there were equal levels of abuse across different denominations, but that the victims of that abuse belonged (on average) to different demographics. So we might see less child sexual abuse amongst protestants, but more abuse of adults with (for example) intellectual disability.

This suggests that celibacy is not the issue, since abuse occurs whether celibacy is mandated or not; and what varies is which vulnerable groups are available to the abuser.
 
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com7fy8

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how effective they are is due to how much control that structure has or defensive it acts.
If there is defensiveness of covering-up, I would say this can help to encourage predators. But this would be only one factor.

There are more Catholic abuse victims because that church has a more hierarchical and strict structure;
one factor, I would say, needing help of other items, in order to produce the predator numbers which have been reported

the Boy Scouts
I suppose Boy Scouts could tend to recruit unmarried males who are interested in young victims. We appreciated having counselors more our age, because they were not as strict as the married and older males. So, this could help a predator to blend in, without needing to marry in order to cover up his intentions. But, of course, I do not know if most Boy Scout predators were unmarried younger males. But it seems a reasonable possibility.

Child Sexual Abuse - Is it just Christian?
I think there can be cultures where it is even expected that children be exposed to what we understand is abuse. And there are certain people who call themselves Muslims, who mutilate girls and claim that God requires them to do so. That would be a different sort of abuse. So, if that stuff can be happening, who knows what else is happening in different cultural settings??

If we selected leaders with the Holy Spirit’s guidance we wouldn’t be in this position.
Jesus says His sheep know His voice. My opinion is Jesus Christ's voice has not directed leaders to select predators to be pastors > John 10:1-30. And, like you say, we need to not evaluate anyone by appearance; this way, a predator can not fool us with acting and toning the voice and smart talking. We can make sure with God.

when an organisation is more worried about its reputation
damage control

I don't believe celibacy is the issue.
It might be an easy requirement for a predator to meet and use for camouflage. But I don't think it is the cause. I understand that violating a child is a hate crime; so it is not really connected with a person's sexual pleasure preference. Hate, with its betrayal of trust, is a heart thing, of character, I would say. Cruelty is not a sexual pleasure preference thing. But a cruel person can use cruel ways to get preferred pleasure of different sorts.
 
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Bob Crowley

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I raised this point in another post which the OP started on exactly the same issue, and as far as I'm concerned the business of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church is not an issue.

The greatest percentage of child abuse overall occurs within families. The parents may or may not be married, but if they're parents, then obviously they're not celibate.

National Child Abuse Statistics from NCA

Where and how child abuse happens
Most child victims are abused by a parent. In substantiated child abuse cases, 78% of children were victimized by a parent.1

Child-on-child abuse is common. At CACs in 2019, 22% of people alleged to have abused a child were themselves children (in cases where we knew the age of the alleged abuser). 14% of the total were teenagers.

It's time the OP got off the issue of priestly celibacy as being the root cause of what he perceives as the Catholic stranglehold on abuse. In ordinary society, nearly 80% of child abuse is caused by parents, married or unmarried, but certainly not celibate or they wouldn't be parents.

So why does the OP think that allowing married, non-celibate priests would make one iota of difference?
 
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Paidiske

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Allowing married priests might make a difference, not because celibacy is the problem, per se, but because marriage brings with it a lot of benefits besides sex (such as emotional support and intimacy). It can, in effect, provide a buffer and an escape valve for much of the toxicity which might otherwise manifest as abuse.

But if - and only if - the potential abuser is self-aware enough, and willing enough, to allow it to be. There are plenty of clergy who allow the toxicity in their workplaces to infect their households.
 
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Bob Crowley

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From what I've read of the issue, it seems to me that most of the Catholic abuse happened in organisations which were socially based - schools, respite centres etc. - and which were organised and run by religious orders rather than your average parish priest.

You've also supplied a pitfall to your own solution - the fact that you claim "... there are plenty of clergy who allow the toxicity in their workplaces to infect their households."

I think it would be tough being a married or celibate priest or pastor. I often refer to "my old pastor" from my Presbyterian days. He was a real workhorse, origiinally from a Methodist background (with their ethic of not wasting a minute) who cared for a wife and six sons (although one of them died) on a single wage. He did a great job.

But he also said that he lived below the poverty line for years. In his own words "I nearly starved!"

In the financial area it could even be easier to be celibate. Mind you there's nothing stopping a pastor's spouse from working themselves if they want to to supplement the income.

But I don't believe for a minute that allowing priests to marry would have made one bit of difference to the toxic culture that pervaded some of these places.

Having said that, I have my own reasons for believing that the Catholic and Protestant churches need to reunify, and that it's far more important than most of us think.

To do that, I think there needs to allowance for an order of married priests or pastors, perhaps with their own title, and not just in the Eastern rites either. But that's got nothing to do with child abuse in the Catholic Church or its causes.
 
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I think there can be cultures where it is even expected that children be exposed to what we understand is abuse. And there are certain people who call themselves Muslims, who mutilate girls and claim that God requires them to do so. That would be a different sort of abuse. So, if that stuff can be happening, who knows what else is happening in different cultural settings??
Like I said, "Child Sexual Abuse - Is it just Christian? (A restatement of thread title.) DEFINITELY, NOT. IT IS AN EVIL WHICH PERVADES ALL SOCIOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES." It is NOT found in "JUST" the Christian realm.

This abuse may be incorporated into specific religions and cultures but its fundamental essence is evil, sin against that which God ordained good. There can be no culture or religion which, for example, believes it is right and good to mutilate a girl's sex organ(s). If such did ever exist we would not be bothered by the animals of that religion or sect, thereof, anymore, would we? Perverts and evil people hang together to form alliances of self-preservation which can lead to the establishment of whole societies, thereof, like Sodom and Gomorrah. The last half of my time in my careers I was in a front-line position in prisons to disgustingly discover that our society is so perverted that in prison it is NOT at all like Hollywood presents. Baby rapers and child abusers are IN FACT left alone because there are so many of them in prison now and has been for decades that they ban together for protection and some of them are from intellectual and powerful positions on the outside. Like the other criminals, they have their own "CLUB" and learn from each other things NOT to do to keep from getting caught and share their past "encounters" with each other. Their only real punishment for their crimes, as with others, is the momentary time of apprehension and whatever consequential injury may happen as they resist arrest. They are predators and users of people; putting them in prison does not punish them by separating them from those they love, as they have no clue what love is, but that is the exclusively intended means of punishment, according to MI DOC, anyway. Those who have charge of their mangmt are informed such and are charged to make their stay as safe and well-cared for as possible; well-fed, a safe and comfortable private place of their own, excellent medical care, schooling, and even a job; and if they are attacked, they have their own body guards with video surveillance, rovers, communication systems, and a centralized control system. MI used to and may be doing so again, and other states pay to get them 4 yr+ degrees. I had one who got one in Psychology and used his knowledge to assess his handlers (guards and supervisors) and manipulate and harass them to the nth degree. I think he even got some fired and other inmates serving more time at taxpayer's expense of about $40,000/yr ea . Fortunately, one of his handlers was able to counter his predatory behavior effectively with a major ticket and get him taken way up to No-wheres-ville, up the "frozen Tundra" of the NW UP. He had not rehabilitated from his murderous ways for which he was there, ONLY succeeded in deceiving DOC that he had done so enough to put through college. Then he used the knowledge DOC gave him to continually cause derision, constant litigation issues/expenses between him and handlers and other inmates, $100's of thousands of dollars more tax payer's expense, till someone, probably empowered by God, got rid of him to a much less populated "far land." It is sad, but many people never try to make their life better; they just leech and use and exploit and strip others to get what they want and sooner or later take a "break" from the risk and anxiety of it all, and get a rest in the security and benevolence of the prison system. Prison systems in the US would be a vacation to many around the world in need. Our prison systems are very ineffective and becoming more so in encouraging self-correction, rehabilitation. Hmmmm...? We keep giving them more liberties, and rights, and better care, and..... Just can't understand why they aren't rehabilitating but recidivism, overall is increasing???

Sorry, for that. But do not even begin to think that a CSC gets "his due" from other inmates in prison. They are the largest "protected" class in prison these days and have been for decades. Keep that in mind for sentencing and other things. Do not reduce their time thinking that their time will be hard, not at all. They will be "kickin' it" probably with one of the biggest CSC clubs in your area.
 
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