Bishops' study doesn't ring true
Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane Wash., is greeted following a news conference on May 18 by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops releasing the findings of a study to analyze the pattern of clergy sex abuse Credit: AP
The five-year study commissioned by U.S. Catholic bishops on the sex abuse scandal has all the earmarks of a whitewash ["An answer in abuse by priests," News, May 19]. The study downplays homosexuality as a factor, when the majority of cases involved priests abusing male children or teenagers.
Celibacy was also downplayed by the study's authors. The suppression of normal sexual drives has all the expected repercussions. The study gives little weight to these two factors as contributing to the sex abuse scandal, when common sense dictates otherwise.
Gerald Fortsch, Smithtown
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