Germany: 576 Cases of Sexual Abuse by Priests Between 2000 and 2010

The Vatican and apologists for the Roman Catholic Church would have the public believe that sexual abuse by priests happened in the distant past of the 1950's, 1960's and perhaps 1970.' rather than admit that child rapists within the Catholic clergy are a continuing problem.  A report out of Germany makes it clear that while perhaps not as rampant, predator priests remain a serious problem.  Perhaps if the Church hierarchy focused less on persecuting law abiding gays and more on cleaning up its own cesspool within the clergy, the world would be a better place.  Better yet, as a report from Australia found, the Church could come into objective reality and face the fact that sexual abuse is a systemic problem and ties directly to the sick psycho-sexual development of a clergy that is obsessed with sex and taught that normal intimacy is dirty.  Here are highlights from The Journal:

 

GERMANY’S ROMAN CATHOLIC Church revealed today that at least 66 clergy had been accused of sexually abusing children and adults over a 10-year period, with most of the victims male.

The findings were part of a scientific study ordered after the Church was thrown into crisis two years ago when hundreds came forward alleging they were abused as minors between the 1950s and 1980s.
Based on dozens of expert appraisals of Catholic clergy submitted by 21 of Germany’s 27 dioceses, it said the clergy had been accused of 576 cases of sexual assault between 2000 and 2010.

Three-quarters of the 265 alleged targets of abuse were male, the German Bishops’ Conference said, releasing the report drawn up by three forensic centres for research.

Bob Felton well described the problem at Civil Commotion:

[W]e know now that sexually troubled men tend to preferentially select careers in the clergy for the reason that they are troubled. They hope the environment will help to overcome whatever difficulty they have, or that they will at least be in an environment where they can’t behave inappropriately.

The implication of this is plain — and exactly what I have insisted for years: The global clergy sex abuse scandal is a direct consequence of the teachings and cultural attitudes about sex in the perfervidly devout subculture.

The question is when will the larger public demand true accountability from the Church leadership that continues to allow the problem to fester?  When will bishops, cardinals and the Pope face criminal prosecution as they deserve?