Report blames culture for most abuse by priests

WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers hired by America's Roman Catholic bishops to determine the causes of the sex abuse crisis say celibacy and gay priests weren't the main culprits.

Instead, they say most of the priest-offenders came from seminary classes of the 1940s and 1950s who were not properly trained to confront the upheavals of the 1960s, when behavioral norms were upended.

The analysis by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice suggests that boys were usually the victims because priests had more access to them.

Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, ridiculed the notion that the priest who raped her when she was a child "was influenced by the hippie movement."

She said victims won't be satisfied until bishops are held accountable for transferring predatory priests and turn all of their abuse records over to police.