Australian sociologist: Church must tackle clergy sexual misconduct with adults

ST. PAUL, Minn. (OSV News) -- A possible 50% of priests are unchaste, a sociologist who studies clergy sexual abuse and misconduct told a webinar audience March 24.

The actual statistic, however, is unknown, and needs further research -- and ultimately the willingness of church leaders to recognize clergy sexual misconduct as a pressing issue with real victims, he said.

Stephen de Weger gave the first of three webinars on the topic of clergy sexual misconduct with adults March 24. Sponsored by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the series -- titled "Unchaste Celibacy: A Webinar for Survivors and Those Who Care for Them" -- continues April 28 and May 26. The first webinar focused on statistics -- and the lack thereof.

He immediately admitted that "it is very difficult to actually know anything of substance" when it comes to the true scope of clergy sexual misconduct with adults because not enough data has been collected on the subject, and "you are free to be skeptical of especially my opinions," he told his audience.

However, "unholy beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that have facilitated a destructive culture within the church simply must be challenged for the good of all," he said.

De Weger, who teaches criminology at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, based the 50% estimate on research by Richard Sipe, a laicized Benedictine priest and psychotherapist who for decades studied the sexual behavior of priests and religious before his death in 2018. In two of his books, published in 1990 and 2003, Sipe claimed, with evidence, that at any one time, no more than 50% of priests are practicing chastity. The statistic does not include religious brothers or sisters.

Meanwhile, Sipe's research suggested a similar number of priests and religious question or reject celibacy as a requirement for their state in life, de Weger said. This view, he added, differs from that of clergy who believe in celibacy and generally live chastely but experience a lapse in chastity. Sipe's statistics, while the object of some criticism, "were supported by various cardinals, including Cardinal José Sánchez, prefect of the Congregation of Clergy in Rome, as well as leaders from various religious orders," de Weger said.

De Weger began academically studying clergy sexual abuse of minors while he was healing from his own experience of abuse, both as a child and young adult. While the topic of clergy sexual misconduct with adults surfaced in that research, it was the personal conversations he had with priests and religious who admitted to sexual relationships that caught his attention and prompted him to begin looking at the issue through an academic lens.

He ultimately interviewed dozens of adults who had been involved sexually with clergy.

"When I started my research, it did not take long to come across myriads of stories of sexually active clergy," he said.

Recent cases have brought the issue to the fore, he said, noting allegations against artist Father Marko Rupnik, who has been accused of having sexually abused adult women for decades; allegations of clergy raping religious sisters in India, leading to large protests; and the allegations, which were reportedly widely known among some church leaders but publicized in 2018, that the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick preyed sexually on seminarians and other young men.

For his research, de Weger makes a distinction between celibacy -- which he defines as the state of being unmarried, regardless of one's sexual behavior -- and chastity, or the virtue of moderating sexual appetites according to one's state in life. According to church teaching, intercourse and other sexual activity is reserved for marriage.

Sexual misconduct among clergy and religious is not only a moral issue, but one that leads to a web of deception and potential for blackmail that allows those involved to carry on without repercussion, he said.

"The issue of clergy sexual activity with adults ... is actually, overall, very poorly dealt with," he said.

A challenge to addressing the issue is the lack of clear consequences, de Weger said. While the U.S. bishops' 2002 document known as the Dallas Charter provides procedures for addressing clergy sexual abuse of minors, bishops lack similar guidance on instances of clergy sexual misconduct with adults.

"Since 2002, all bishops in the United States have known exactly how to address an allegation if a cleric sexually abuses a child. It's black and white," de Weger said. "But the manner in which allegations of sexual misconduct of adults are handled looks nothing like those clear procedures. Bishops everywhere find themselves vexed -- and frequently -- about exactly how they should handle allegations of clergy sexual misconduct involving adults, and generally they just want to push them aside."

"One needs to add to this vexation the very real levels of sexual activity that these same bishops may themselves be involved in, but which they at least would also certainly know of within their own clergy circles," de Weger said.

Terminology is also a barrier to addressing clergy misconduct with adults, de Weger said. "In other words, what on earth are we talking about?" he said. "So, is it abuse? Is it love? Is it a sexual relationship? Has real consent been given -- real consent? Is it an abuse of power, or ... are these activities mere 'sins of the flesh'? Is it actually professional misconduct, which needs a more secular intervention?"

"We cannot effectively respond to this issue unless there are clear guidelines as to what we are dealing with here," he said.

Besides the 50% estimate, de Weger said that there are other means to roughly estimate the scope of the issue, including what he terms the "iceberg," which also originates with Sipe's work, and which suggests that of priests who abuse children, four times as many are sexually involved with women, and twice as many are involved sexually with men.

Another estimation strategy relies on the number of known children of clergy -- which is conservatively estimated at 10,000 worldwide, de Weger said. But using that as a marker does not account for sexual acts that do not produce children or instances of abortion, which is, he said, "a very terrible reality."

De Weger emphasized that these numbers do not only include clergy. "What this means for every one of the other adults is unknown," he said. "Were they OK with their relationship? We don't know. But what is clear is that a large proportion suffer serious harms as a result, even from supposedly innocent liaisons with clergy, if the participants in my research are anything to go by -- and they are."

Many adults who have reported complaints of clergy misconduct are ignored or neglected, or face "character assassinations," he said.

While some adult victims feel like the situation is hopeless, de Weger noted that many people felt the same 30 years ago about clergy sexual abuse. Now that scourge is taken more seriously after victims and the media "forced change," he said.

Church leaders can respond -- and have responded -- to the problem by ignoring it, deflecting from its reality and feigning concern, or by working to shift the church's doctrine-based approach to sex to align more closely with a permissive, post-modernist view, he noted.

De Weger emphasized another way for church leaders to respond: They can re-root themselves in the church's teaching on sexuality and work for reform.

"Statistically, we have enough evidence to suggest that there is a serious problem," de Weger said. However, he stressed that studies leading to stronger statistics "are very much needed to make people -- the church powers -- take notice and hear the voices of all of us and those affected."