Bill Donohue of the Catholic League consistently promotes the notion that the clergy sex abuse crisis is about gays in the priesthood. He does so again today, using the "audit" of compliance with the bishops' charter to buttress his claim.
Here's Donohue: "...as we have seen from several studies—including the one just released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—80 percent of the victims are male. Just as important, the majority of the victims are post-pubescent. In other words, we are talking about homosexuality, not pedophilia."
In fact, as the report released today clearly demonstrates, more than 70 percent of the abuse claims filed in 2009 involved children younger than 14; just 25 percent involved children over age 15. (See page 37 of the report.) These findings are consistent with previous studies.
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