matters during the course of graduate or postgraduate training ( Shafranske &
Malony, 1990), while none of the training directors from clinical internship
programs report offering training in religious or spiritual issues ( Lannert, 1991).
Furthermore, 50 percent of psychologists working in academic settings report no
personal religious preferences ( Shafranske, 1996). Only one in 600 professional
articles published in eight American Psychological Association journals between
1991 and 1994 included clergy ( Weaver et al., 1997). While both clergy and
mental health professionals are interested in emotional and behavioral outcomes
among those with whom they work, they generally appear to do so in isolation
without guidance from each other ( Jones, 1994). Therefore, it is not surprising
that we know little about sexual offending clergy from either the Roman Catholic
Church or from the mental health community. Given this state of affairs, what do
we know about this issue?

We know very little about sexually abusing priests ( Berry, 1992; Isley, 1997;
Plante, 1996). Surprisingly, little published information is available on this topic.
Given the amount of media attention, one might assume that the majority of
priests are sexual offenders. However, Sipe ( 1990, 1995) estimates that only 2
percent of priests are pedophiles while an additional 4 percent are ephebophiles
(i.e., sexual attraction and behavior toward adolescents). Since there are
approximately 60,000 Catholic priests in the United States, these figures suggest
that approximately 4,000 priests are at risk for sexual involvement with minors.
Overall, since 1985 more than 200 Catholic priests and brothers have been
reported sexually victimizing minors ( de la Houssays, 1993; Quade, 1992). The
number of cases that are not reported to Church officials or the police are
unknown.

Contrary to public perception, the vast majority of priests who sexually abuse
children abuse post-pubescent adolescent boys rather than latency-aged children
or young girls ( Dempsey, 1992; Haywood, Kravitz, Grossman, Wasyliw, 1996;
Plante, Manuel, & Bryant, 1994; Robinson, Montana, & Thompson, 1993;
Robinson, 1994; Rossetti & Lothstein, 1990). Current information indicates that
the notion of sexual abusing priests primarily targeting young, latency-aged alter
boys is a myth. In fact, these reports suggest that 80 percent to 90 percent of
sexual abuse of children perpetrated by Catholic priests are directed towards
adolescent boys ( Haywood, 1994; Haywood et al., 1996; Plante et al., 1994).
Therefore, pedophilia among Catholic clergy appears to be rare with ephebophilia
being more typical.

Very few comprehensive studies of sexually abusing priests have been published
in journals as of this date. One notable exception is the Loftus and Camargo
( 1993) study of 1,322 priests over a twenty five-year time span who were
hospitalized in a private Canadian psychiatric facility specializing in the diagnosis
and treatment of clergy. These authors, based on analyses of more than 100 youth
molesters and contrast groups of celibate, homosexual, and heterosexually active
subjects, report that 2.7 percent of the treatment population were pedophiles, while
61.1 percent experienced no sexual acting out behavior.

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