The Ruth Institute released a study by Fr. Paul Sullins, Ph.D., that sheds new light on the sexual abuse scandal which has rocked the Catholic Church for years.
The study analyzes national data collected by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, data codified from the 1100-page Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report released in August 2018, and data from a 2002 survey of Catholic priests by the Los Angeles Times.
The Ruth Institute study shows:
- a disturbing recent increase in the number of sexual incidents reported since 2010.
- a strong correlation between the percentage of self-described homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood and the incidence of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy.
Ruth Institute Founder and President Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse says: “To properly assess the sexual abuse scandal which has plagued the Catholic Church for decades now, certain issues must be confronted with an uncompromising commitment to learning the truth wherever it leads us – even if that truth is politically incorrect.”
Fr. Sullins added, “The data file compiled from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report is available at our new webpage (ruthinstitute.org/clergy-sex-abuse) dedicated to gathering information about the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. We invite other researchers to take advantage of the opportunity to utilize this data.”
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization equipping Christians to defend their beliefs about the family to create a culture of lifelong married love. The Ruth Institute has responded to the latest round of clergy sex abuse revelations by encouraging the laity to do two things:
- Insist on justice regarding clergy sex abuse. That includes punishment for the guilty, protection for the innocent and restoration for the victims, as far as humanly possible.
- Proclaim the full truth of the Church’s teaching on marriage, family and human sexuality.
Dr. Morse has a Ph.D. in economics and taught at Yale and George Mason Universities. She’s the author of numerous books, including The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives, released in August.
Fr. Sullins has a Ph.D. in sociology and is recently retired from teaching at the Catholic University of America. Formerly a married Episcopalian priest, he is now a married Catholic priest, and has written a book on that subject, Keeping the Vow: The Untold Story of Married Catholic Priests.
For the Ruth Institute Clergy Sex Abuse webpage: ruthinstitute.org/clergy-sex-abuse.
