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You are welcome to think that clerical pederasty is isolated to the last 40 years.

Freeper maryz posted the following breakdown of 'reported' abuses, in the Boston Diocese. The oldest ones date back to 1940.

Recently in the Albany Diocese, a 62 year old man stepped forward to report being abused as a young boy. The bishop apologized to him but was helpless to pursue his case as his 'alleged' abusers are both dead. Which brings us back to 'sinkspur's contention that abuse was prevalent pre VCII.

What do these numbers show? They show a pattern of abuse before during and after VCII, with the greatest concentration in the 1970's. Those victims AND their abusers are still alive and in a position to pursue legal action. Given the example from Albany, it is quite likely that other 'older' victims cannot be counted for the very reason given by Bishop Hubbard.

It would be naive to believe that abuse was the result of 2nd Vatican Council. It is simply more visible statistically, from that standpoint in time.

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I apologize for being so compulsive about posting the numbers breakdown of reported abuse cases from last week's Boston Herald, but I find them illuminating (they'd be more illuminating broken down by year):

1940-1959 (20 years) – 24
1960-1969 (10 years) – 163
1970-1979 (10 years) – 282
1980-1984 (5 years) --- 107
1984-1992 (9 years) --- 86
1993-2000 (8 years) --- 33

No date (whatever that means) -- 94

SuziQ - compare the numbers before and after 1984, when Law took over; looks like he was doing something, if not quite enough.

There are a couple possible explanations for the differences in numbers. A number of things of relevance were happening in the 1960s. The Vietnam War caused some individuals to enter religious life as a way of avoiding the draft. The sexual revolution emboldened people to act out more deviant fantasies. And a new spirit of liberalism infected the Church. The 1970s was the great decade of "coming out of the closet."

The first thing I thought was "War of the Worlds" or perhaps, just a war against the Church. (sigh) 250 posted on 08/02/2003 3:53 AM PDT by Thorondir .

Yeah, it does look like something from a campy SciFi film. LOL! Space Aliens are reportedly deviant sexually as well - abducting and molesting human victims. [irony] One wonders what Agents Mulder and Scully eventually would find if a thorough investigation of the corruption in and infiltration of the Church were conducted. But, come to think of it, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is probably the more appropriate comparative metaphor for the reigning follies in AmChurch liberalism. John Kerry seems to have decided to try writing a role for himself in this obscene farce. Maybe he plans to star in a remake.

Anyone who can cut and paste Kerry's head on to Tim Curry's body wins this week's prize.

It would be naive to believe that abuse was the result of 2nd Vatican Council. It is simply more visible statistically, from that standpoint in time.

From what I've seen, no one is making that claim. The claim that we *are* making, is that sexual abuse was nowhere near as prevalent before 1960 as it was after. And the statistics do support this. Let's re-arrange them so they're a little more "honest."

1940-1959 (20 years) – 24
1960-1979 (20 years) – 445
1980-2000 (20 years) - 226

Even taking into account intangibles like fear of reporting, death of victims and abusers, etc. do you honestly think that this explains a 2000% increase? I don't.

Personally, I think the 1940s and 50s numbers are low, but not by a factor of 20. Based on what I've read, heard, and seen, I think there was most definitely a major increase in abusive priests after 1960 and that this increase was caused by a combination of factors:

1.) The "sexual revolution" of the 1960s.
2.) Increased infiltration of the Church by communist/homosexual priests during the 1940s & 1950s.
3.) Weakening of traditional Church disciplines by the improperly interpreted "Spirit of Vatican II."

Vatican II is only at fault in that its dictates were improperly used to replace traditional ways of dealing with wayward priests with "psychology" and other worldly mechanisms. I would forcefully debate any suggestion that pederasty is endemic to the celibate Catholic priesthood, as some advocates for abolishing celibacy have indicated in the past. Indeed, that's the true source of this false claim that homosexuality and pederasty were just as prevalent before the 1960s.