From Psychology Today-The recent release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church during the past 70 years has unleashed another round of headline news and sadly, much misinformation about this critically important problem. Few topics elicit more emotion and rage from the public than sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests. Certainly those most impacted by this terrible story, victims and their families, often express great emotion such as anger, disgust, and deep sadness, but even those who have never had anything to do with the Catholic Church, priests, or know any victims often do so in equal measure as well. With such emotion, inevitably, misinformation abounds.
As someone who has been conducting research in this area, evaluates and treats both victims and perpetrators, conducts psychological evaluations and screenings of applicants to Catholic seminaries, and has served on child protection committees for the Church at national, regional, and local levels for 30+ years, it is important, in my view, to separate fact from fiction concerning this explosive and highly emotional topic. While whole books could be written about this topic (and I’ve published three of them since the 1990s) here I’ll address just a few of the major areas of misinformation that gets the most attention in the press about clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Separating fact from fiction is critically needed if we are truly interested in keeping children safe from possible sex offenders inside and outside of the Catholic Church.
More here-
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-the-right-thing/201808/separating-facts-about-clergy-abuse-fiction
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