https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/jesuit-magazine-uses-gay-science-to-deny-link-between-gay-priests-and-abuse


Prof. Gerard van den Aardweg speaks at the John Paul II Academy for Human and Life and the Family conference in Rome May 21, 2018

Editor's note: Dr. Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg is a Dutch psychologist and psychoanalyst. He is one of Europe's foremost experts on homosexuality.

December 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) - "Sexual orientation by itself is irrelevant to child sexual abuse behavior or risks," stated an article published online at the Jesuit-run magazine America Oct. 22, 2018. In his article titled "No, homosexuality is not a risk factor for the sexual abuse of children" psychology professor Thomas Plante repeated this false slogan in a fruitless attempt to deny the rock-solid fact that "ordinary" homosexuality is most assuredly the key cause of the sex abuse scandals in the priesthood and of the ensuing cover-up maneuvers.

Avoiding truth, propagating lies

The gay-normalization propaganda clings to the lie that homosexual attractions and behaviors are "by themselves" natural, healthy and morally and spiritually all right. So if some less desirable things turn out to be inherently connected to homosexuality - mental and medical disorders and ailments, excessive promiscuity, partner violence, substance addictions, and relative to our subject here, a substantially enhanced risk of molestation of minors - the gay reflex reaction is: blame discrimination, religious and social prejudices, invent whatever alibis, suppress media attention for the facts; but no critical word about what they revere as 'holy homophilia.'

But then, how does a homosexual activist explain away these annoying, repeatedly confirmed statistics on abusing priests, and on male molesters of minors in general, for that matter?

When all cases of minor abuse by priests, pre-adolescents and adolescents are taken together, about 80% concerned boys, so only 20% girls; Two-thirds of pre-adolescent victims are boys and 85% of adolescent victims are boys. Eighty percent (80%) of all victims are adolescents. Thus the abuse of minors by priests is overwhelmingly homosexual: It is homosexual pedophilia as regards abuse of pre-adolescents, but pederasty (abuse of adolescents) in the overwhelming majority of all abuse cases. How can we deny that minor abuse by priests is a question of homosexuality?

Gay rationalization

Plante tries a desperate, almost comical escape: "Most [priest] offenders viewed themselves as more likely to be heterosexual than homosexual." In other words, the implication is that most abusive priests were bisexuals who thought they might be predominantly heterosexual, so their homosexuality was 'irrelevant.' This gay rationalization or self-deception stems from the second John Jay Report. Think of what "most" of these molesters of juvenile boys are alleged to have said about themselves: 'In hindsight, it is quite possible I am basically heterosexual.' So they generally felt they erred in their choice of the victim's sex. If this fantastic idea proceeded from some of the abusers themselves, it cannot be made out, for the authors of this peculiar Report show themselves no less skilled in the art of gay rationalization. Anyway, no solid examination of the sexual attractions and fantasies of the offending priests has been made to verify this 'interpretation.' And there is not a shred of evidence for the existence of a type of male heterosexual who is inclined to abuse same-sex minors.

Adult male molesters of boys invariably prove predominantly homosexual. Their fantasies about boys are obsessive, including their grooming, stalking, and clinging to their prospective victims, whether they are directed to pre-adolescents or teens. While on the other hand, no adult man with normal, heterosexual, feelings is sexually interested in boys; let alone that he would feel tempted to sexually seduce or molest them. No matter how lonely he may feel, or in what emotional crisis he may find himself.

Plante's second argument for the "irrelevance of homosexuality itself" as the key cause of the priest scandals is that heterosexual men would be as likely to molest minors as homosexuals: "The vast majority [of abusers of minors of either sex] are heterosexual, married, and non-celibate lay persons." Yes, because the vast majority of people are heterosexual.

Nevertheless, according to the most reliable estimates, about 2% of male adults have homosexual inclinations, and this 2% are responsible for over 14% of the cases of molestation (which concern pre-adolescent and adolescent boys). Thus 98% of the adult male heterosexuals are accountable for 86% of the abuse cases (of a heterosexual nature) which indeed is the vast majority of the cases, however only in absolute numbers.

It remains that the average homosexual man is more than 8 times more at risk to molest boys than the average heterosexual man to molest girls. If, as it is in the overall population, only 2% of priests were homosexually inclined - and these would be responsible for 100% of the cases of abuse of boys - then the homosexual 2% are responsible for 80% of the cases of all abuse against minors (see above). And, the remaining 98% of priests, those who are heterosexually inclined, would be responsible for 100% of the cases of abuse of girls, what amounts to 20% of the cases of all abuse against minors. In other words, the average homosexual priest would be 200 times more at risk to offend than his heterosexual colleague. But perhaps, during the period of most abuse cases, up to 15% of the priests were homosexual or homosexual pedophiles. Then, the homosexual priests were still more than 20 times more at risk.

Even if one wants to blame external circumstances or situational factors like the position of authority of the abusing priests - this psychologically nonsensical accusation of "clericalism" - the fact remains that it is homosexuality (and homosexual pedophilia) per se, by itself, that drives the priest to react to these circumstances by seeking sexual lust with young boys, predominantly with teens.

Pedophilia v Pederasty

The close association between homosexual and pedophile-homosexual desires and the inclination to seduce or molest minors is a well-documented constant, both clinically and statistically. It is a consequence of the neurotic, obsessive nature of these feelings. Let me first clarify the terms "homosexual pedophilia", "ephebophilia", and "pederasty". Heterosexual pedophilia stands for sexual attractions to pre-pubertal girls, homosexual pedophilia for attraction for pre-pubertal boys; ephebophilia for homosexual attraction to teens, and pederasty means sexual contact with teens. The preferred partner age of most homosexually inclined men is adolescence and young adulthood; therefore, seeking contacts with teens, which is the case with 85% of the adolescent (post-pubertal) victims of priests and with 70% of all priest victims taken together, male and female, is just ordinary homosexuality, namely, pederasty. The much higher frequency of homosexual than heterosexual molestation of teens, in general, has been well-documented all along. For instance, a quarter of adult practicing gays admitted sexual experiences with minors under age 16.

Homosexual pedophilia accounted for 64% of the alleged abuse of prepubertal victims of priests, which is 12% of all priest victims. Thus pedophile homosexuality is a minor cause of abuse by priests. Fortunately, the suspect media habit of calling abusing priests "pedophiles" is on the wane, though the taboo on calling them "homosexuals" is far from lifted. Homosexual pedophilia, similar to ephebophilia or androphilia, is to be regarded a subcategory of homosexuality, not as an isolated disorder that has nothing to do with "normal" homosexuality, as is the favorite cliché of the gay propaganda. The pedophile homosexual is principally directed to boys who do not yet show the physical characteristics of puberty, but there is some overlapping between homosexual pedophilia and ephebophilia.

That this pedophilia belongs to the family of the "homosexualities" is confirmed by clinical and statistical studies on the causative or predisposing childhood psychological factors (parent-child interactions, peer relationships), which are much the same in ephebophiles, androphiles, and pedophiles.

That homosexual pedophilia is part of "homosexuality" has always been recognized by gay activists. Homosexual pedophiles have always been prominent in the gay movement. The right-hand man of top homosexual activist Alfred Kinsey, Pomeroy, was a homosexual pedophile. As one Dutch pedophile academic stated in an essay study on pedophilia and the gay movement: "By acknowledging the affinity between homosexuality and pedophilia, the COC (official Dutch gay organization) has ... broadened gay identity." Therefore, of all alleged cases of minor abuse by priests according to the statistics in John Jay I, 70% (ephebophilia) plus 12% (pedophilia) add up to 82% cases of homosexuality.

Swallowing gay ideology, hook, line, and sinker

The fairy tales told by Plante in order to deny the all-important involvement of homosexuality in the abuse epidemic signals the blindness to reality that often characterizes many homosexuals and pedophiles who want to see their feelings as normal. (Gay "self-normalizing" and "self-justifying".) Whether or not he himself labors under the disorder, he clearly swallowed the gay ideology, hook, line and sinker. This most naïve statement of his admits of no other conclusion: "Many see  heterosexuality as normal ... while believing that homosexuality is abnormal."

Gay and pedophile self-normalizers simply turn things upside down. Starting to deceive themselves, they are forced to deceive others. Unless they have the courage to be honest and recognize the abnormality of their inclinations and the wrongness of their behavior, they imprison themselves in an inner world of lies. A mind thus obscured cannot produce but "gay science", which a lesbian activist once defined as "potentially pernicious" and "more propaganda than truth". It doesn't seek the truth but justifications for a sick ideology. In this mindset, Plante, apparently immune to what has become patently clear by the explosion of evidence during the last decades, peddles the same gay rationalization/justification today he sold in a Time interview in 2005: "Being homosexual doesn't put you at higher risk for committing sexual offences against kids."

Pro-gay psychologists responsible for the wave of homo-scandals in the Church

So we must make the following observation. This psychologist, who was "comfortable with the 20% to 40% of the priesthood he believes are homosexually oriented" and his not so few colleagues who shared his ideological blindness or psychological ignorance, are partially co-responsible for the wave of homo-scandals in the Church. They acted on one of the "pernicious" gay-science myths, the harmlessness of homo-tendencies and behaviors. Their position has likely been used to help many homosexual young men enter into the seminary. Going by Plante's present contentions, even today he seems unwilling to dissuade a seminary rector to accept "normal homosexual" candidates.

The gay and pro-gay indoctrinated psychological and psychiatric professions have been a major force in the homosexualization of the seminaries and the priesthood. They are the ones to blame, not the handful of firm and courageous professionals such as Fr. John Harvey, the founder of Courage, psychiatrist Dr. Fitzgibbons, and an exceptional bishop who, in spite of the disinterestedness and unwillingness of the mainstream Church and most bishops and in spite of lack of money, helped good-intentioned homosexual men and priests to lead a chaste life, and some abusing priests to curb their impulses.

No studies are necessary to discover what everyone knows: Since the sixties, a great number of bishops, modernist or orthodox, more or less gravely neglected their duties and abandoned their flock. For them, sexual sin was abolished, Humanae Vitae was a dead letter, and teaching the whole Catechism was antiquated. 'Why make problems about people with different sexual tastes?' such bishops likely reasoned. Only in such a general climate of decadence could the gay subculture flourish in the Church and develop its powerful networks.

Influence of gay ideology on bishops has been immense

The influence of the gay ideology on the ecclesiastical bureaucracies and the bishops has been immense. We must remind ourselves that the pastoral letter on homosexuality Always Our Children (1997), approved by the majority of the American bishops, was a whining piece of gay promotion. Along with thickly laid on sentimentality and a lot of dramatization of the social victimhood of young people with homosexual tendencies, the false suggestion was given that homosexuality is inborn and that homosexual relations should be accepted. The "warm welcome" into the Church for people living in same-sex partnerships, which was actually advocated in that glib pastoral document, resurfaced unimpaired in 2014, in the Interim Report of the Bishops' Synod in Rome.

These historically significant documents reflect the prevailing influences and moods in the Catholic Church up to the present day; they are pro-gay. Not the sound opinions and practical initiatives of the likes of Fr. Harvey and Dr. Fitzgibbons have thoroughly impacted the American Church but the lies, often dressed up as "science," and immoral ethics of gay ideology. This "compassionate" Always Our Children was even unwilling to recommend the authentically Catholic group Courage in a footnote. Such pro-gay documents do not include the scientifically well-established insights of those psychologists and psychiatrists who explain homosexuality, not as something innate, but as a mental and sexual disorder and who point out that homosexual relations are de-humanizing, self-degrading and self-destructive, as has been perennially taught by the Church. No, included in these documents are the untruths, often masked as science, and sick morality of gay and pro-gay theologians, priests, and bishops.

Symptomatic of the power of the gay ideology in the U.S. Church of the 1980s, the period Fr. Harvey started his enterprise of restoration, were the activities of the director of the St. Luke's Institute in Suitland MD, the practicing homosexual psychiatrist Fr. Michael Peterson, well-financed and sponsored by prominent prelates such as the Cardinals Baum and Hickey. In this "treatment center" homosexual and pedophile priests were taught the ideology of the normalcy and unchangeability of their tendencies (only "be careful with children"), while the "expert" himself was allowed to indoctrinate many bishops with the gay science of Alfred Kinsey. The influence and power of a gay guru such as this Peterson casts light on the veritable cause of the sexual abuse- and subsequent coverup crises: the homosexualization of the Church.