(20 Feb 2019) A clergy abuse survivor said that linking homosexuality to the abuse of children and vulnerable adults was "a lie that needs to be hammered into the ground."
Peter Saunders, an abuse survivor and founder of The National (UK) Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said he had worked with survivors for 23 years "and most of those are females".
Saunders was speaking alongside other sexual abuse victims from Ending Clergy Abuse, a worldwide organisation of human rights activists and abuse survivors from over 17 countries.
They were meeting with Pope Francis and bishops on Wednesday ahead of a Thursday summit on clergy abuse.
A French gay rights activist and author of "In the Closet of the Vatican," told a separate news conference on Wednesday that studies have long shown that being gay is not a risk factor for committing sexual abuse.
But he said the culture of secrecy about priests' homosexuality had contributed to the abuse scandal.
Francis is convening this week's summit at the Vatican to prevent cover-ups by Catholic superiors everywhere, as many around the world continue to protect the church's reputation at all costs, denying that priests rape children and by discrediting victims even as new cases keep coming to light.
The meeting will bring together some 190 presidents of bishops' conferences, religious orders and Vatican offices for four days of lectures and workshops on preventing sex abuse in their churches, tending to victims, and investigating abuse when it does occur.

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