Up-To-Date Information on Hungarian Cases
Although we do not possess data like many churches do and the Catholic Church in Hungary has not ordered any investigation for the detection of cases yet, we have numbers anyway. These numbers are from the research made by journalist Peter Urfi, published here with his permission.
This is a summary of the individual cases published in the media and the responses sent back from the dioceses and religious orders to 444.hu. It is important to note that the Church leaders had different definitions about the time period from which they provided data (it was mostly the last „few decades” or the period starting from the time they took office), furthermore, many of the dioceses did not give a definite answer.
- Priests penalized as a result of investigation done in Hungary: 10 (convicted, disqualified, suspended or quit themselves);
- Investigations that are ongoing or with an unknown result: 11;
- Investigations ending with absolution: 3;
- Proceedings against Hungarian priests in foreign countries: 2 (practically, they were penalized);
- Proceedings against unconsecrated employees of the Church: 6.
The reality behind these numbers and the true extend of sexual abuse cases in Hungary is impossible to size up of course.
As an example, there is the interdisciplinary MHG investigation from 2014 to 2018 ordered by the German Bishops' Conference; the results were published in August 2018. According to these, between 1946 and 2014 there were 3677 children altogether who were the victims of crimes of sexual abuse by 1670 clergymen in Germany. The guilty clergymen account for 4.4% of all the Church priests.
Regrettably, the results of this research are far outweighed by the independent research done by Jörg Fegert, Medical Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy at the University of Ulm. According to this research, the MHG investigation, which is based only on the pre-existing Church documents, only showed the „tip of the iceberg”.
Presumably, many cases have never been documented, many times the victims did not make a statement. Based on the Ulm research, in this „dark pane” that we do not know anything about and that is not mentioned in any Church documents, there might be 114 000 victims. These results will be specified through further investigation.
The Reasons of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church and Clarifying Misconceptions
First, three common misconceptions must be clarified.
- Celibacy is not the only reason of sexual abuse, the problem is not this simple. However, celibacy plays a role in it. Later, three typical cases will be shown where sexual abuse is certainly caused directly as a result of celibacy.
- Homosexuality is also not a decisive issue. It is a common point in (ultra)conservative circles that homosexual priests molest children. This is not the case. We know that homosexual adults are attracted to other homosexual adults. In contrast, being attracted to minors – either boys or girls – is a totally different phenomenon. This will also be discussed later.
- The offenders are not monsters. On the contrary, they are often extremely charming, attractive, they impress the victim and make the victim trust them. They seem like a really kind friend or relative. They otherwise may live an exemplary life as priests or monks. For that very reason it is really hard to catch them.
Sexual abuse occurs when three factors are present at the same time. These three factors are the following:
- unhealthy mental habitus
- unhealthy concept of power and sexuality
- unhealthy environment or community
Unhealthy mental habitus: pedophilia and ephebophilia
Two terms need to be distinguished: pedophiles are attracted to children under the age of 12, ephebophiles are attracted to children over the age of 12.
Distorted concept of power and sexuality
Every act of sexual violence is primarily a misuse of power in a sexual way. Spiritual power is the most dangerous of them all, as it even includes the right to decide about the other person’s eternal destiny. Therefore, it has to be handled with utmost carefulness. It is so easy to misuse spiritual or sacral power because the victim considers the priest as a direct representative of God, therefore, they trust them and fulfill their every request with unconditional devotion.
The worst case is the so called Messiah complex when somebody feels that God has called, selected them for a special task, therefore, they stand above every rule that applies to ordinary mortals and even the moral rules. They do not have a sense of guilt at all no matter what they do.
The other especially dangerous thing is the temptation of being perfect, the ideé fixe of perfectionism. There is an expectation towards priests and monks to be perfect. This is intensified by pressure from their superior, the community, the media and the public. If they realize they cannot achieve this, they try to put up an appearance. This causes the compulsion to smother up their faults. Sexual abuse is obviously the worst of faults.
It is not an easy question for priests and monks how to integrate their own sexuality into a lifestyle in which they cannot have a sex life. It is known that Eros and desire are the source of passion, fantasy, and dreams. This source is connected to sensitivity, the ability to be touched and vulnerability and this is the foundation of compassion. By muting desire, the natural warmth and spontaneity of love disappears. There is only impersonal benevolence left. Where Eros does not receive enough attention, virginity becomes mere control and lovelessness.
Robinson wrote: „Driven by a good cause, a young man can be prepared to live their life without genital sexuality. However, no young man who has a clear mind is able to imagine, for even one moment, a life for themselves without Eros, in which there is not an abundance of love.”
If priests and monks deny Eros in themselves, they deny their own female part at the same time. This is the reason for being unable to do self-reflexion and to embrace closeness. By losing tenderness, they lose just what makes someone human. And then we still have not talked about those classic patterns that poison the life of many priests and monks even today: self-denial, self-abasement, total withdrawal from the world, estrangement.
Soul-Destroying Environment and Community
The seminars, the novitiate can be unhealthy and destructive from many aspects: the single-sex environment, the absence of parents and other caring adults, feeling that the other sex is a „threat” to their own calling, lack of preparation for a life of sexual abstinence, the impersonal environment leads to emotional isolation, overemphasizing the intellectual and spiritual development leads to the detriment of growth of human character, experiencing closeness in a normal way can only happen secretly.
(Translation: Éva Loboda)
