Church in
Crisis
Psychologists dispute Ratzinger’s figures
While psychologists say they don’t know what percentage of
people in the United States have been credibly accused of abusing children, one
leading Vatican figure has said that abuse by priests is less common than in
other groups.
“The percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher
than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower,” said Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith.
He made the remark Dec. 9 in answer to a question about a comment
he had made Nov. 30 in Murcia, Spain.
“In the United States, there is constant news on this topic,
but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type,” he
said Nov. 30. His comments were first reported by Catholic News Service.
“The constant presence of these news items does not
correspond to the objectivity of the information or to the statistical
objectivity of the facts,” he said. “Therefore, one comes to the
conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to
discredit the church.”
However, according to psychologists, Ratzinger’s assertion
that the number of offending priests is no higher than in other professions has
never been supported by research, because no such research has been done,
according to psychologists.
Fr. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and president of St. Luke
Institute in Silver Spring, Md., who has served as consultant for the U.S.
Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, addressed the issue in
America magazine April 25: “There are simply no prevalence rates of
perpetration of child sexual abuse either in society at large or in the
priesthood. The reason for the lack of data is inherent in the crime. It is
very difficult to gather a sample of adult males and ask them if they have ever
sexually abused a minor.”
Psychologist A.W. Richard Sipe told NCR he doubts the
accuracy of Ratzinger’s pronouncement that “less than 1 percent”
of priests is guilty of abuse. Sipe said the bishops’ office in Washington
has in the past created such statistics by only including priests whose history
of abuse has become public knowledge and withholding information about “a
number of offenders who are not publicly known.”
Sipe, whose years of study of sexuality and the priesthood have
led him to estimate that between 4 and 5 percent of U.S. priests have sexually
abused minors, said that Ratzinger’s comments miss “the core of the
problem. The core is the revelation of systemic corruption. It isn’t about
bad priests. It is about a system that is hypocritical at its core. The
faithful are up in arms because the system builds on and fosters a kind of
hypocrisy.”
-- Gill Donovan
National Catholic Reporter, January 10,
2003
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