the sexual abuse crisis and the roman catholic church has been around for a decade now least since been discovered and it's been talked at many times that today we're going to be able to talk about it with someone that has been involved in it and we will come today dr. tom plant a psychologist and involved since its began. is that a counsel to the church and to others and today you're going to tell us. what's happening.

your book about it and having a big conference coming up soon. we are reflecting on the 10 years since the initial earthquake if you would in the church. in happened in january of 2002. for doing this sort of a 10 year retrospective of where are we now on what's going well and what's going badly and where the money to go. we're hosting a conference with many of the leaders in the area from around the country on may 11th. we have two short of the time to talk about this but what are you going to find out or reveal. from my point of view the prognosis is actually quite good. but that doesn't mean we are done by any stretch. there is still supposed holes that need to be plucked but the voices heard from at the conference are those the wrote

chapters in the book that was published a few months ago. and people have different points of view. so the point of view of those who have worked with the u.s. sec counsel catholic of bishops on those close to that with the victim advocacy groups such as snap and so there will be more different points of view represented in sparks fly. and you have as a psychologist involved with the church in many aspects of this and help screen seminary candidates tend to you look to people who you're probably in council the been involved with people that the perpetrators and people that have been victims and to all this year firmly planted in the catholic church. so i have been screening applicants for religious life

with the they want to priests and nuns or deacons for the past 25 years have seen clergy perpetrators those accused of sexual misbehavior in defending with children or others for 25 years and the victims of abuse to. i worked at the santa clara university the catholic university and am in daily mass kind of catholic. so i am very much steeped in the catholic church although i do like to say that i am married to a nice jewish girl but there are more priests and my son's bar mitzvah and then rise but also take a look when the veil was pulled tout ever it was a decade ago on what had the

church had the wisdom for whatever reason to bring in people who could finally be objective about this and one of them is one of your coat conference people. when the church exploded 10 years ago my first reaction was what took people so long it been at this for many years and we have a conference of the topic in 1998 at santa clara university in a press conference about this and it was not well attended people weren't interested then. so when this all exploded in 2002, the u.s. council catholic bishops hired the top ranking female in the fbi who's no. 3 in the fbi. to come and start a new office in charge of the need protection. so there's a top-notch fbi

professional, and in and basically worked very closely with the bishops to the policies and procedures in place to keep kids safe and the church. someone was objective and was appointed tell them what they wanted to hear. we have to take a break but briefly tell me why the church for so long think that they were doing good and they simply were telling one another with the wanted to hear. at the and that it did church felt threatened if chorus and concerned about scandals and embarrassments and so forth and they knew that their brother priests and wanted to do was not their best interest but not necessarily the best interest of kids and families. or more to take a break coming right back.

welcome back today we are talking about the sexual abuse crisis and the roman catholic church and first talked about released discovered in 2002 talking about today with a psychologist who has known it from everything go as a professional and a catholic you have been seen on all the cable channels and the news channels to have as a phil to be the only one in the box. your lovely face. but often pro when you're on there. the four boxes and others it's nice to be doing to be alone with you in order to talk about this issue without too many voices weighing in.

had to fill about that this was treated in the media to the media look at it as something they really wanted to see resolved% and they wanted to have legs to keep on going. i think that's really true in this just the way the media works in the current times. it's never about the truth the truth isn't necessarily interesting. so things get manipulated in a variety of ways and in the past decade that i have been doing a lot of interviews with the press about the topic sometimes they do try to get it right and sometimes they just looking for more scandal and so forth. and the media is mixed on this topic and the sad part is that we do know a lot about this problem we really do a good quality research best clinical science is available but more often you don't care about that

in the press. it just hear about the latest scandal uncovered and things really do get manipulated quite a bit. that's about that other stuff today tell us about that. what is happening there and i know some money find priests and they are the greater number to we have very very good quality research independently done by the college of criminal justice in new york by researchers who are not catholic academics at john jay and they've done to major studies to one published in 2004 and other published just last year and they conclude that the 4 percent of priests in the united states during the past 60 years yourself sexually violated a minor. that means 96 percent and did not wish also compare that to other groups that have access to children.

greaser clergy or pastors are so forth with other religious traditions of public-school teachers and soccer coaches and a clearly have found not like to their studies but other cities to the sexual abuse tragically exists in any institution where you have an adult interaction with children. what we need to do is keep kids safe and do everything we can to keep the kid save and can do this their policies and procedures that are in place now with the u.s. council of catholic bishops but also the group's doing a better job. the good news is that the percentage of children being abused in recent years is much lower than in the past. all of these procedures and policies are overseen by people that are objective and not to put these things in place. so this is really authentic prevention. i think it's really good

the glitches everybody doing their job well. the policies and procedures in one image of the u.s. council of catholic bishops tenured document for top protection is a very good document in my view but is it being adequately implemented in every single parish in school and hospital and so forth across the country. of course it may not be as close in our diocese have withdrawn. and the one on the west coast to. when we talk about it use a 4% now the ugly side is have they given to the mix? and are then not cutting into the mix today. 94% of all cases of child abuse and the catholic church occurred before 1990 so that's really important most of the

cases we know about are really old cases now back in the did the vast majority of the cases occurred during the 1970's in particular and back in the day we did not yet adequate screening for clergy. it's true of other blood of the trust of children to school teachers and so forth so we do screening and background checks and colonel background checks and things like that and psychological testing and so forth. there is a variety of procedures in place today that didn't exist 40 years ago. that's the good news these aren't perfect like a test to give false positives and false negatives but they're very good for the most part a night at the that we're doing that's better is that when priests come to us from overseas sometimes it's hard to do these background checks because some of these folks that come from third world countries they don't we have police records in the way that

we do in the united states or canada. so we have to be much better about screening international priests there were trained and ordained a receipt's if returned kept. so i think we're getting better at that. we're on to ask you one more thing you say back in the day that there was a screening locations of such a wonderful thing but do you think back in the ditch retract left too much in the hands of god. about who was right? galt these are held sometimes we like to say and what to use our talents and gibson knowledge to help got out and so it is true that back to the day natalie the church but mental health professionals didn't really know that much about sex offenders and it wasn't to the late 1970's that

the research best quality research emerged how we should evaluate tree and sex offenders. stay with us.

welcome back today were very happy to have with the psychologist dr. tom plant taking us through the clergy and sex abuse crisis and then the catholic church. they have a wonderful question i

wanted to talk about the morale among priests and people that work with children hasn't had a chilling effect. it sure doesn't sad to see because 96 percent of preceptor the past 60 years nerve violated a child to do anything wrong, many times when they're walking down the street and a roman collar people assume they're a sex offender and priests of talked about having people spit in their face in an air corridor on the street and young mothers picking up their kids to get them away in a public environment. as if they're all pedophiles and it's tragic. the other thing is a lot of priests feel that just one phone call away from being thrown under the best so in other words and the accusation that may emerge if some random person calls whether it's sure not, a sort of like guilty until proven innocent.

it has taken a real hit in the morale among the clergy. and has that hit in the route added dimension to this whole thing. our priest suffering from the san able to seek counsel about this? chris i think and varies depending on location and so forth. their services available and train so forth on of the good things that's rising from the crisis as were all more sensitive about keeping kids safe but in addition to that from more sensitive to make sure people let trained on how to keep natalie can't save but to make sure that if people need to talk about the have a place to do it. but it varies from diocese to diocese. talking about which no one about race, they've been taking care of or

i think it's a mixed bag crash. and in some very good priests do believe that they're sort of walking on egg shells because again the notion of being guilty until proven innocent and the notion that a lot of priests feel it's hard to where roman collar in public because people assume your sex offender. one of the things we can do is to to rio to appraise the 96% of priests of have done nothing wrong and have been wonderful priest to kids and families and everything else. and i think there could be more support for the 96% in the 4 percent of violent children often times the people the public was said they should be defrocked but there's a lot of problems with that it's easier

to keep an eye on the guys if you keep them within the church but obviously a to follow law of the vow of obedience to be could come in handy rather than just defrocking them and throwing them into the public eye. let's talk about the charter it's the document and the cannon that treats abuse research used. and and try and find a way to say this tactfully but for some things there's a very low car and priest had been chartered for what might have been at a this factually for what might simply be accusations. and it has killed seven guys. so what about that? happens with the charter the dallas charter speaking to what is called zero tolerance

meaning if there's any criminal accusation amiss behavior and a longer for the rest of their life going to act as a priest in terms of saying mass and it also cannot do mass for their parents funeral those cases but the thing is in some respects a church - 1 on the other side to how to make to find a credible accusation. plenty of cases replace seven missed again and they found no wrongdoing and becomes like a he said she said thing and unfortunately there are cases that the princess priestess' felt fell under the bus. will be back with more.

welcome back today we're speaking with dr. tom plant a psychologist teaching at santa clara university a catholic and knows all about the sexual abuse crisis that was began to know better and to testing to can't even before that. he's an honest with us to tell us what's been going on and we talked about a lot of things in this know what remains to be done using all the corners are being covered and what we are working out that we know most but this. its a question of implementation we have great policies and procedures and the numbers tell us that children is much safer today than they ever were in the catholic church. and that's all good news but you need to have anybody on board

every bishop that every school principal and every person involved with children needs to pay attention to that to do it. and if they don't there's issues of accountability that need to be addressed. who suddenly have good policies and procedures we just needed implemented everywhere. want to talk about the decade of crisis conference and all the work will make this a future with less of a crisis sothos about the conference coming up. we published a book a few months ago and edited volume involving major players in the topic nationally and also international writers. including clergy victim advocates and so forth. most of demerol kunming to santa clara university and the 11th for an all-day conference to reflect on where we've been and where do need to go in terms of keeping kids safe and the

church. critics would he think it will flush out? i think will be helpful to all the major players nationally in the same room at the same time to not on the talk about what they know what to bounce off each other about strategies and so forth to make sure the loopholes are fixed so that cancer safe and the church becomes a church that we wanted to be. a pretty candid discussion. it's gonna be on board and other heavy hitters include thomas a jesuit said georgetown who's giving a keynote address and carried a professor at the criminal college of criminal justice to was the lead author on these reports. kathleen the fbi professor of

professional whose co-host in this with me. and might be people there from snap. the president is that from chicago will be there to present we only have about a minute but how does the church been had they had to have been told the this is a and b talked about honestly with a lecture not i don't know we have the support of the diocese i think back in the day we had to bring the man kicking and screaming but now the church for a much wants to get this right is just a question you have 23 percent of the american population catholic and 40,000 priests in the united states and try to get everybody to sing the same song.

you let us know what's up when you come back. thanks for joining us remember his book and the conference and remember kids.