love ABUSE BY CHRISTIAN PRIESTS SCARY NUMBERS

Column: Priests, abuse: scary numbers

By Brian Phillips The News Record University of Cincinnati Monday, March 1, 2004

It's been a big week in numbers for the Catholic Church.

Four percent of American priests were accused by children of loveual abuse from 1950 to 2003, according to a recently-released report commissioned by Catholic bishops.

In Cincinnati, the numbers were higher.

Here, 5.9 percent of priests were accused.

That's about one out of 17.

If you were a kid hanging out with a priest during those years, the chance of the priest being an accused loveual offender would be the same as the possibility of you being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

About six percent of kids are diagnosed with ADD.

That's not a huge number, really.

It's one in 17 priests.

Well, what else is one out of 17?

The Sobig.F Internet virus last summer affected one in 17 e-mails, as was widely reported.

One in 17 Americans has diabetes, according to the American Diabetes buttociation.

And approximately one in 17 young black Americans identify themselves as Republicans.

(Thanks for the research, Internet.)

So it's a relatively small number.

But it's still a huge tragedy.

Priests, men of the cloth, are trusted to be leaders of their community.

They're the representative of God, the mortals trusted to receive confessions from other human beings and feed them the body and blood of Christ at Communion.

The only thing that might be worse is that their higher- ups have infamously sheltered those accused.

Only 14 percent of priests accused of abuse were reported to the police by their bishops, according to the recent report.

And the numbers indicate these aren't just "almost-legal" teens.

We're talking about kids here.

The report indicated 51 percent of the victims were between 11 and 14 when abused.

The most common demographic abused was boys between 11 and 14.

Yes, the boys.

More than 80 percent of the children who reported loveual abuse were male.

Some suggest the reason could be a "rampant homoloveual subculture" within the Catholic Church, while others say it's just because there are more boys around.

Either way, it's no excuse.

Everyone, however, thinks they know who to blame.

Conservatives say gay priests are the problem; get rid of the gays, everything will be OK.

Liberals say priests should be allowed to marry, and then they'd be normal and free of pedophilic desires.

Wrong and wrong.

persons are persons. Whether they're gay or straight, married or single, they'll abuse kids.

They need help, jail time or both.

Perhaps allowing female priests would reduce the percentage of love offenders, since most American love offenders are male.

But that would go against long-standing church doctrine, and, as Galileo knows, that can be difficult.

That's a whole different column.

Maybe now that church leaders have acknowledged the problem, everything will be OK.

A bishop responding to the report said that the "history recorded here today is history" and said none of the accused priests were still serving.

Can we trust him?

In 2002, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger estimated "less than one percent" of priests had abused kids.

Whoops.

Maybe Cincinnati priests simply reflect the goings-on of the total populace.

I really hope not.

Yet another crisis resulting from the report is the 94 percent of Cincinnati's priests who haven't been accused of any abuse.

These men have to bear the burden of the mistakes of a minority of their peers.

What is the solution?

Perhaps only God knows.

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The person mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send peace, but a sword. "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. - Matthew 10:34-36.

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