Understanding the current crisis in the Catholic Church

Most of what you hear in the media about the current crisis in the Catholic Church is wrong; here are few examples

Note none of the following is intended to imply that those priests who did molest children aren't monsters who should be punished. Or that the old policy of the Church to move around molesting priests who had been "cured" was ok; thankfully the Church ended that practice. The intent is only to separate the true crimes of those priests from the exaggerations created by the media to attack the Church.

1) Media Message: There are lots of priests today molesting children:
The Truth:
 The molestation of children by priests is mostly a problem of the past; few of the accusations in the  PA Grand Jury report involve events that occurred more recently than 33 years ago; the 300 accusations cover 70 years.  Further the nationwide abuse scandal peaked in the 1970-80s and by the 1990s was pretty much eliminated--though of course any number above 0 means more work needs to be done.  For the last couple of years the rate of accusations against priests in the US has been around 0.05%. In comparison about 10% of public school students are victims of some sort of molestation.

2) Media Message: Most priests are molesters
The Truth:
Only about 4% of priests nationwide have been accused of molesting children. Three hundred priests seems to indicate a large fraction of priests are molesters which is why the media rarely mentions that those 300 priests are out of every priest who served in PA for 70 years; i.e. thousands of priests.

3) Media Message: Most of the molesting priests are pedophiles
The Truth:
Nationwide about 5% of the accusations against Catholic priests involve  acts with very young children.  80% of the accusations are about gay priests molesting teenage boys.  While molesting teens is an abomination most people agree that pedophilia, molesting very young children, is even worse.  The media does this because the left is generally sympathetic to sex between 16 year old boys and gays and they want to protect gays.  That 80% of the molesting priests are gay or bisexual means that maybe allowing Boy Scout scout masters to be gay might not be wise something the media disagrees with.

4)Media Message: The McCarrick scandal is about molesting children
The Truth:
Until very recently it was thought that McCarrick's crimes were sexually harassing adult males.  Hence at the core the McCarrick scandal is about gay priests taking advantage of Seminarians not about child molestation. The media conflate the two to make it appear that the Church hasn't made great progress on reducing molestation of children by priests. The accusations against McCarrick for molesting young boys are about events that occurred decades ago before the Church took steps to address the problem.

5)Media Message: Gays are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals are
The Truth:
According to the John Jay study 80% of the priests who were accused of molesting children were accused of molesting teenage boys.  National studies of molestation in general show that 88% of molesters are men, 9% are women, and 3% are unknown.  Given that 39% of the victims of molestation are male and that gays and bisexuals make up 3.9% of the population it's clear that the vast majority of those who molest boys are men and hence either gay or bisexual. If gays were no more likely to molest than heterosexuals we'd expect to see at most 12.9%( all 9% of the women molest only boys and the 3.9% of molesters who were gay/bisexual molest only boys) of the victims of molestation be boys.  That we see a rate that's more than 3 times higher than that 39% vs 12.9% proves that while most gays don't molest kids gays in general are more likely to molest kids. Note that historically a group that advocated sex with 3 year old boys was allowed to march in the SF and LA gay pride parades for years.  What the media is doing is confusing the fact that most molesters are  n't gay--which is true--with the idea that gays aren't more likely to molest.

None of this excuses the crimes committed by priests and Bishops decades ago nor does it mean that their victims don't deserve our help and sympathy. Nor does it mean we shouldn't be finding and prosecuting the few priests/Bishops who are still molesting children or covering that up.

However it shows that contrary to the media lies the Church has made significant progress in eliminating the molestation of children by priests.

The media is lying for two reasons; they want to attack the Church and they want to cover up the on-going gay problem in the Church.

The current crisis in the Church, one that hasn't been addressed yet, is the #MeToo harassment of adult seminarians by gay priests like McCarrick.

The media loves gays and will do pretty much anything to keep people from seeing the true nature of the gay lifestyle.  Hence the media wants to convert McCarrick's homosexual sins into child molesting sins.

Good Catholics should realize that the PA Grand Jury report found that the Church has successfully reduced the molestation rate in the Church dramatically; though until we hit 0 we need to continue to work on the problem.

Good Catholics should also realize that the McCarrick scandal shows that gay harassing priests have been advanced in the hierarchy and that we now need to address that problem.

Don't let the media confuse you; the big problem in the Church today is gay priests who harass adults not masses of priests molesting children.