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The rate of convictions of Catholic Church personnel for sex abuse in Australia seems “strikingly out of proportion” with the size of the Church compared with other faith communities, according to research by a law professor at the University of Sydney.
“While there are some similar patterns in terms of victims’ age and gender, the incidence of abuse by Catholic clergy and religious appears to be many times that of ministers and pastoral staff in other Christian churches, and it may well be significantly higher than in the general population, said Patrick Parkinson.
“When all explanations have been offered, the rate of convictions of Catholic Church personnel does seem to be strikingly out of proportion with the size of this faith community compared with other faith communities.”
Professor Parkinson, an evangelical Protestant who previously advised the Catholic Church on sexual abuse issues, said he played a “small part” in the pressure that has led to a royal commission on sexual abuse in Australia.
This was through “publicly withdrawing my support for the Catholic Church’s national committee that was responsible for addressing these issues, and calling for a royal commission”.
“The decision to criticise the Catholic Church so strongly and publicly was only made after careful consideration and after exhausting all attempts to persuade the Church hierarchy to address the issues I was raising,” he said.
Parkinson said most victims of clergy sexual abuse in Australia are adolescent males.
“Of 370 victims of abuse in the Catholic Church for which criminal convictions had been recorded since 1956, 87 per cent of victims were male,” he said.
“Lest it be thought that these patterns are unique to the Catholic Church, we found a similar pattern in our Anglican Church study. Three-quarters of complainants who alleged sexual abuse were male.”
Parkinson noted that 4.76 per cent of priests who attended one Melbourne Catholic seminary and were ordained between 1940 and 1966 sexually abused children, while 5.41 per cent of alumni of the same seminary who were ordained between 1968 and 1971 received similar convictions.
Source:
Social Science Research Network
Image: Reuters
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