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Adolescent Psychiatry, 2004 by Ponton, Lynn, Goldstein, Dana
Recent media exposure of sexual abuse of boys by Catholic clergy has engendered a crisis in the Catholic Church. One of the less painful sequelae has been an attempt to understand this phenomenon better. This abuse is a subset of the wider problem of child sexual abuse, and presents one of the least-understood aspects of this problem-sexual abuse of boys by male perpetrators. This chapter reports on 26 adolescent boys and adult men who describe having been sexually abused by Catholic priests as children or adolescents. The length of time that it takes boys and men to report this abuse; the characteristics of priests' abuse; psychological sequelae, including psychiatric diagnosis; sexual concerns such as fantasies and questioning orientation; sexual abuse of others; and impact on spirituality will be discussed. Two cases, the first of an adolescent boy who entered therapy only a few years after the abuse occurred, and the second of a man who waited over four decades to tell his story, are presented in depth. On average, the men waited more than 18 years before coming forward to seek psychological help or legal action.
The period of silence that has accompanied male sexual abuse has not been entirely quiet, however, because myths have flourished. Among them are the beliefs that men who have been abused will abuse, that men who have been abused will be gay, and that they should not be trusted with children. Our study counters these myths but raises other concerns such as loss of spirituality, sexual difficulties, profound depression, and substance abuse. Knowing the real risks in this tragedy helps shape solutions for the future.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Although a significant percentage of boys (with estimates ranging from 3% to 31%) are sexually abused before their 18th birthdays (Finkelhor, 1984; Spencer and Dunklee, 1986; Wyatt and Powell, 1988; Watkins and Bentovim, 1992; Shrier et al., 1998; Hinds and Baskin, 1999), the issue of male sexual abuse received little attention until the recent crisis in the Catholic Church. This oversight was a serious one, as the aftereffects of male sexual abuse have proved to be severe. Substance abuse is particularly widespread in this population (Garnefski and Arends, 1998; Simpson and Miller, 2002), possibly stemming from attempts to self-medicate to control overwhelming negative emotions. Depression and suicidal thinking have also been frequently reported as a response to sexual abuse (Choquet et al, 1997; Shrier et al., 1998; Garnefski and Arends, 1998; Edgardh and Ormstad, 2000), with some studies suggesting that males display this pattern after childhood sexual abuse even more frequently than females (Dykman et al., 1997; Garnefski and Diekstra, 1997). In addition, sexual confusion, fear of intimacy, and lost trust are common issues for both male and female child sexual abuse survivors (Bruckner and Johnson, 1987).
Despite a recent influx of topical books on the subject, only a handful of academic articles have been written about either the abusing priests (Haywood, Kravitz, Grossman, et al., 1996; Hayward, Kravitz, Wasyliw, et al., 1996; Jenkins, 1996; Fönes et al., 1999; Plante, 1999; Langevin, Curnoe, and Bain, 2000) or the victims of these atrocities (Rosetti, 1995; Isely, 1997; Berezin de Guiter, 2000; Fater and Mullaney, 2000; Disch and Avery, 2001). Of the four articles on victims of clergy sexual abuse, only two have used sample sizes of 10 or more. Disch and Avery (2001) compiled data on a mixed population of survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and medical and mental health professionals. Their study reported that a larger number of males are abused by clergy members: 26.3%, as opposed to the 9.5% abused by medical professionals and 6.7% by mental health professionals. In clergy abuse, a larger number (94.4%) of the abusers were men, whereas a smaller number (64.3%) of the abusers were heterosexual than in the other two groups. Rosetti examined 1,800 adult Catholics, divided into three groups: those who reported no childhood sexual abuse (n = 1,376), those who reported childhood sexual abuse, but not by clergy (n = 307), and those who reported childhood sexual abuse by clergy (n 40). Rosetti (1995) found that those abused by clergy reported significantly lower levels of trust in the priesthood, church, and God than those in the other two groups. Fater and Mullaney described a small sample of seven men who were sexually abused by clergy as children. All reported anger and spiritual distress, during semistructured interviews. Berezin de Guiter (2000) composed a single case study of a 10year-old boy whose father died when he was 2, who was abused by a priest; the boy's sexual response, anger, and violent reactions to these life events are discussed. Last, Isely (1997) wrote his dissertation on the effects of clergy abuse, interviewing nine men who were abused by clergy as children. Isely described symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, guilt, low self-worth, loss of religion, anger, difficulty managing and maintaining interpersonal relationships, and depression.
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