German Church Report Confirms Shared American Priest Child Abuse Tactics

The New York Times three days ago recounted a report which was just released by the German Roman Catholic Church Bishops Conference on the conduct of German priests who were child molesters in that country between 1950 and 1980.

The story can be found at –

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/world/europe/report-details-sexual-abuse-of-children-by-german-priests.html?_r=0

The report remarkably confirms that the conduct of German priests in sexually abusing children was consistent with that of their American counterparts at the same time in history.  Indeed, the conclusion is that there is a remarkable similarity world wide in how Roman Catholic priests preyed on vulnerable children.

The conclusions reported by The Times included that priests “preyed on emotionally vulnerable children, building up their trust and then assaulting them, repeatedly, over a period of several years.”  They also “carefully planned their assaults and frequently abused the same children repeatedly for years.”  Finally, they lied to their under-aged victims by telling them that the sex act with a minor child was “an expression of a loving bond with God.”

Throughout my recent book “When Priests Become Predators:  Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors” (2012) I document in minute detail the identical tactics used by American priests in the same time period.  For example, the survivors recounted in Chapters one and two repeatedly were taught that the sex act with a priest was an expression of God’s love for the victim.  The 11 of the 12 victims whose stories are told throughout the book also were repeatedly violated for years at a time.  Many were particularily emotionally vulnerable, as was the survivor in chapter two who was then suffering from a broken home.  Finally, careful planning by these predator priests is constantly revealed by cutting the victim out from the pack of other students when a vulnerable child was found, as is described in chapters three, two and one.

It is almost as if successful tactics were shared world-wide and followed throughout this church of which these priests were members.

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