At the conference on Care and Safeguarding: Sexual Orientation, Disorder, and Abuse held on March 3, Brother Brendan’s presentation focused on paedophilia and homosexuality and their possible involvement as factors in the abuse of children. The phrase “paedophile priests” is often used in relation to the crisis of the abuse of children by clerics, but this is highly misleading, as very few priests and brothers who abuse are paedophiles, which is a diagnostic term for those who have a preferential erotic attraction to prepubescent children, most of whom can have an adult attraction to women and not to men. The John Jay study (USA, 2004, 2011) reported that around 6% of priests had credible allegations of abuse and no more than 5% of those who had abused showed behaviour consistent with a diagnosis of paedophilia.

The issue of homosexual orientation and abuse is more complex. The various reports of commissions of inquiry indicate that 62% - 85% of victims of sexual abuse by priests and brothers are boys, and the majority are aged between 9 – 14 years of age, the age which corresponds to a diagnosis of paedophilia. Various studies show that between 50% - 83% of priests and brothers who abused identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual.

Some reports identify opportunity as a key factor, as priests and brothers had access to boys, especially in schools and boarding institutions. Also, the Church’s theology regarding homosexuality, and the effects of negative social and Church attitudes which considered homosexuality as an illness or a crime and as sexually deviant, created a culture of fear and shame which contributed to unhealthy behaviour.  The catechism of the Catholic Church continues to describe homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered.” While there has been insightful critique of these two hypotheses, it is also important to note that while there appears to have been an increase in the number of homosexual men who were seminarians in the 1970s and 1980s, and some surveys suggest that around 38% of priest and brothers could be homosexual, that there was a significant decrease in the number of victims of clerical abuse after 1980. There have been very few reported allegations of male or female clerical sexual abuse in the past 30 years in the developed world. UNICEF noted that around 12 million girls are married in childhood each year. Research from Australia (2023) indicated that in a survey of 1,295 men, 92% of whom identified as heterosexual, that 15.1 % reported sexual feelings towards children and 9.4% reported that they had offended against a child. The issue of sex with children under 18 years of age may be an aspect of the sexuality of some men and not only of homosexual men.

Brother Brendan reported possible motivations for the abuse of boys in the 9 – 14-year-old age range by religious brothers based on his own research (2020 / 2022). The perpetrators may be emotionally congruent with the boys whom they abuse, and they reported discomfort in relating with their adult peers. Younger boys were more trusting and vulnerable and more likely to respond to care and affection, whereas with older boys there was a higher risk of rejection, the possibility of a physical response, and the fear of being reported or being identified as homosexual in a context where this could cause significant reputational damage. 

Brother Brendan stated several times that his presentation is based on currently available research and that it was important to be tentative in reaching any conclusions. We continually need more data in order to reach informed conclusions on such sensitive subjects.