February 19, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Swiss bishop has responded to new sex abuse statistics from the Belgian Bishops’ Conference, saying they confirm homosexuality’s role in the ongoing Church crisis. He also endorsed LifeSiteNews’ and Pro Ecclesia’s petition to “Stop homosexual networks in the Catholic Church.”
The Belgian Bishops’ Conference found that in more than 1,000 sex abuse cases, 76 percent of victims were males between the ages of 10 and 18.
Bishop Marian Eleganti, the auxiliary bishop of Chur, says that this new Belgian study confirms once more the “worldwide statistically proven, mostly (‘mehrheitlich’) homosexual acts committed by clergymen.” At the same time, he adds, those who promote the “clericalism-abuse-of-power-theory” as the only explanation might as well claim that pornography, too, is only about “abuse of power and of money” and that it has nothing to do with “lust, sex, and sexual preferences.” Such an explanation would be as “absurd” as the sweeping clericalism theory with regard to the clerical sex abuse crisis. Bishop Eleganti calls this reductive attitude a “denial of reality.” He also rejects the claim that clericalism and celibacy are the root problems of abuse.
Father Hans Zollner, S.J. – one of the organizers of the upcoming February 21-24 abuse summit in Rome – stated in a recent interview that the clerical sex abuse crisis is not about homosexuality but rather “abuse of power.”
Bishop Eleganti sent LifeSiteNews the statement below with his express permission to use it as an endorsement of the petition “Stop homosexual networks in the Catholic Church.” This petition has so far gained more than 13,000 signatures and will be publicly presented to the participants of the February 21-24 abuse summit in Rome.
Sign petition to STOP homosexual networks in Catholic Church Sign here.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Cardinal Walter Brandmüller have also supported the petition. So have the Spanish Catholic website Infovaticana, editor-in chief of the Italian newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana Dr. Riccardo Cascioli, Dr. Taylor Marshall, and John Smeaton, CEO of the British pro-life organization Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.
The co-sponsor of this petition, Pro Ecclesia, is an organization of Catholic laymen which aims at strengthening the faithful in full loyalty to the traditions and doctrines of the Catholic Church. For that purpose, they organize days of recollection with prominent prelates, such as Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur.
Below is the full statement by Bishop Marian Eleganti, auxiliary bishop of Chur, as sent to Pro Ecclesia and LifeSiteNews with his words “Herewith I give you a statement that you may publish, with my name, together with your petitions (German and English)”:
With the help of the clericalism-abuse-of-power-theory as the only and total explanation for the worldwide and statistically proven, mostly (“mehrheitlich”) homosexual acts on the part of clergymen – as found in all abuse studies (now also in Belgium) – one could also claim, in an absurd fashion, that pornography had nothing to do with lust, sex, and sexual preferences, but, rather, only with abuse of power and money, which without doubt play a large role in this business. Then, however, we would be at the same absurd point as in the Church's abuse-debate, which consistently denies the link to homosexuality. In any other context, one would call this a “denial of reality.” The cover-up of this fact is obviously influenced by interests and is a systemic problem. I also remember that celibacy and clericalism as explanation of the phenomenon drop out when looking at millions of sexual assaults worldwide which are being prosecuted legally in the entire civil society and which are being recorded statistically.
