Child Sexual Abuse/Pedophilia:
The Catholic Church and Molesters in the Midst

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April 2002

By Toni Meyer, Sr. Research Analyst for the NJ Family Policy Council, Parsippany, NJ.

Since the sex-abuse scandal involving priests was first reported, it has received huge media attention and much of it is rightly deserved. Child sex abuse is an offense against humanity that should always be prosecuted and a Catholic Church or any other church that covers up such a violation of sacred trust should be exposed and prosecuted.

However, there are two important factors that are not being properly highlighted in the media:

1. The vast majority of the sex abuse scandals coming to light involve male priests and boys, making the priests involved homosexuals, not just pedophiles. Unfortunately it is not politically correct to draw attention to that fact. As Father Richard John Neuhaus said, “The overwhelming majority of these cases involve homosexuality, but the media steers away.”
2. Secondly a key question is not being asked. If such sexual perversion has affected “men of the cloth”, how much more sexual abuse of children is going on in the general public and in other institutions who cover it up for monetary or other self-serving reasons? The “toothless” penalty in New Jersey for failing to report child abuse is only considered equal to a disorderly conduct violation .

But the most important question we need to ask is, how can we as a society condone such an overly sexualized media, the rampant pornography that enters our homes and public libraries, and the relaxed laws and non-enforced penalties governing sexual assaults, and think that there will be no repercussions? Why are we so surprised when we see an increase in the rape and sexual assault of children, and find that such perversion has even infiltrated the church at large?

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