The Catholic Leader Taking a Stand Against Linking Pedophilia to Homosexuality

To the best of my knowledge, there is no empirical data which concludes that sexual orientation is connected to child sexual abuse. The consensus among researchers is that the sexual abuse of children is not a question of sexual ‘orientation’, whether heterosexual or homosexual, but of a disordered attraction or ‘fixation’. The bishops are right to point out that a propensity to child sex abuse is not based on a person’s sexual orientation. Many abusers of children have never developed the capacity for mature adult relationships. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children – boys, girls, or both. In the sexual abuse of children the issue is the sexual fixation of the abusers, and not their sexual orientation.