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I think that it doesn't take into account that child sexual abuse is also opportunistic. So availability factors in. Altar boys are available. Also it doesn't take into account that there are individuals who also tend to be bisexual. But that being said, not all sexual abuse includes sexual intercourse and power and control issues are primary to the secondary act which is sexual.

In cases of incest within families both males and females tend to be sexually abused by the same family offender. The offender may not be homosexual or bisexual under normal circumstances yet they are offending against their same gender. There is also the element that some offenders are sex addicts and that being the case it's the sexual act that is important to them and all encompassing and not the gender of the victim.

I know in some circles it is said that the family incest offender (who can be the extended family) is less likely to reoffend once caught and sometimes seen as an offender of lesser threat. This has always somewhat made me shake my head. Incest offenders don't have to go out and abuse none related children - they breed their victims. But that's a different thread all together :-)

Thinking Entity,

It's not very clear what you are saying here? Can you clarify?

The attraction to the younger age groups as opposed to the adolescents would indicate pedophilia. It is really difficult to get a truer statistical analysis when talking within the Church though. We don't know how many girls would also be targeted due to availability if the Church also had female altar girls. I don't think that we can discount availability. But also, if what you are saying is that the children being molested are mainly under the age of 10 we cannot discount that the boys are also being molested by non homosexual priests.

From the cases I've read concerning the description of the acts there has been a fair amount of pretty clear power and control behaviors interweaved with the molestations.

I think one of my points in this discussion is that it would be easy for people to point to the homosexual priests, put curbs on that and sigh a big sigh of relieve. That would be false security because it is not factoring in the heterosexual or bisexual priests. The danger will still be there and where found accountability has to be the answer.

Another factor that bothers me is that if there was a high percentage of priests who were acting out homosexuals or heterosexuals and some of these priests have through the years worked their way to positions of more power then what % of monsignors/bishops etc were covering up because of their own misdeeds.

Regarding the victims 'becoming' homosexual as a result of the abuse it is common for the victim to have gender identity problems. I think this would be even more likely where the boys had contact with the priest for a long period of time. Have any of them discussed with you whether the abuser was assumed to be homosexual since they abused the boys?

I want to mention too that another thing that occurs as far as motivation for abusing is that the rush the abuser gets is not always from the act itself but from the actual grooming process and also in some cases the stalking phase in finding the victim who they can abuse. I had one offender talk about this, describing it as the rush and anticipation a deerhunter feels in the preparations before he goes out for the kill.

There is a lot....an awful lot...that the Church may not realize in dealing with this issue. Offenders do not think logically and sometimes I think the Church looks for logical answers when confronting this issue. I think that is unfortunate because while it is an honest attempt to address the problem it still leaves a lot of children at risk. :-(

And I should also mention, I think you mentioned being as tough with offender nuns. You are correct. Even in the secular society people have not come to terms with female sex offenders. I guess not everyone can wrap their minds around the fact that not all is great like 'mom and apple pies'. There are a large number of males I know who were sexually abused by their mothers, aunts, grandmothers.