After Asceticism by The Linacre Institute

This book looks at the issue of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in the US. It starts with an analysis of the problem, showing that abuse peaked in the 1960s and 1970s (with first offences usually occurring ten years after ordination) and that most offences were incidents of pederasty (boys in puberty and adolescence).

The book blames a rise in hedonistic/pagan culture (sexualisation) in the 60s and 70s coupled with a fall in the ascetic practices of priests and religious which might otherwise have given them some defence against temptation. Added to this was the trust parents placed in the integrity of priests. Around the same time there was a general increase in theological dissent and changes to liturgical practices that left many priests unhappy and confused about their role. This increase in discontent amongst priests was one reason many of them left the priesthood. It also contributed to a huge drop in vocations (priests and religious no longer encouraged young people to follow a vocation they were dissatisfied with themselves) which in turn left the remaining priests overworked and stressed.

The report blames a reliance by the bishops on therapeutic psychology rather than time tested spiritual practices for the failure to bring the problem under control sooner. By treating priests as ordinary men their problems were seen as personality issues caused by repression and immature sexual development (celibacy was blamed). The prayer life and fasting of the priest, the cultivation of virtue and self-control, which had for centuries been recognised as essential to maintaining celibacy, was given no consideration by the psychologists.

The report estimates that 30% of priests were and still are homosexual (much higher than in the general population). It suggests that sexual problems have moved from the illegal to the immoral. So while sexual abuse of children has been tackled, the problem of priests not keeping their vows remains. Liberal thinking, even amongst some bishops, suggests that a priest can be indulge in sex outside of marriage but still do a good job as a priest. The report argues that the hypocrisy of the priest, his being open to blackmail, and general lack of holiness greatly reduce his effectiveness.

The report rejects the idea that the church recruited seminarians with personality issues who were likely to go on to abuse children, or that the ascetic practices at seminaries bred abusers. It points out that most first offences occurred ten years after ordination. Instead the report suggests that priests who had become active homosexuals in parishes, ended up teaching in seminaries giving them a ready supply of impressionable young seminarians to either seduce or abuse.

"the sexual corruption that entered into seminary training in the 1960′s and ’70′s did not come before the increase in sexual permissiveness that had taken hold of segments of ordained clergy, but rather resulted from men, already ordained as priests, bringing their attitude and lifestyle recently acquired back into the seminaries as teachers during a period of significant confusion in the Church. This sexual licentiousness among segments of the ordained clergy occurred concurrently with a rising crisis of confidence among all clergy…The atmosphere of disciplinary and doctrinal defiance common to the time [60's & 70's] would have encouraged confusion among the rank and file priests, and in the deviant, the sexual behaviour afoot; these conditions remain in many places today but they do not manifest themselves in the form of sexual abuse of minors"

The report looks at whether a person is born gay or whether it is socially conditioned.  It suggests that if a child's first sexual encounter is same-sex or they are in an environment that encourages same-sex relationships, they are more likely to become homosexual. So there is an element of nature and nurture.