News

By Alex Bush 

UNITED KINGDOM, May 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fr. John Owen, a UK aide to the Archbishop of Cardiff, has come under fire from pro-homosexual groups for stating that most sexual abuse cases committed by clergy are “committed by homosexuals” on BBC1's Big Questions. The priest said that the majority of sexual abuse by clergy affected teenage boys, drawing criticism from other panelists on the show that he is “ill-informed, ignorant, corrupt and dishonest.”

The topic of Big Questions was the 2,565 page tome that recently came out describing abuses committed in Irish schools, known as the Ryan Report.

The Ryan Report stated that 791 boys and girls were abused (physically, sexually, or both) in Ireland between 1936 and 1970. Of those 791 people, 413 were male and 378 were female. Fr. Owen drew a link between the extreme prevelance of male clergy sexually abusing male students, as opposed to the significantly smaller number of male clergy who sexually abused female students.

The Ryan Report, in its conclusion, states that “Sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ institutions. The situation in girls’ institutions was different. Although girls were subjected to predatory sexual abuse by male employees or visitors or in outside placements, sexual abuse was not systemic in girls’ schools.”

The Archdiocese of Cardiff has distanced itself from Fr. Owen's comments, saying that they his views do not reflect the “consistent view” of the diocese.

In the United States, studies of the clergy sex abuse scandal have revealed a similar pattern as that discovered in Ireland – namely that the majority of the clerical sexual abuse was committed against adolescent boys, and therefore homosexual in nature.

In a move that was perceived as being partly in response to the sex abuse scandal, in November 2005, the Congregation for Catholic Education released the “Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocation with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders.” In that document the Vatican clearly stated that individuals with deep-seated homosexual tendencies must not be permitted to enter seminaries and be ordained priests.