Richard Sipe
American Benedictine monk and author (1932–2018)
Aquinas Walter Richard Sipe (December 11, 1932 – August 8, 2018) was an American psychotherapist and former Catholic priest who wrote six books about Catholicism, clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and clerical celibacy.
Biography
Born in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, Sipe was formerly a Benedictine monk from 1952 to 1970 at Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Sipe was also a certified clinical mental health counselor, trained specifically to treat Catholic priests. He practiced psychotherapy, "taught on the faculties of Major Catholic Seminaries and colleges, lectured in medical schools, and served as a consultant and expert witness in both civil and criminal cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests".
During his training and therapies, he conducted a 25-year ethnographic study published in 1990 about the sexual behavior of Catholic celibates, in which he found more than half had sexual relationships.
Sipe was a witness in more than 57 lawsuits, testifying on behalf of victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
Research in Burlington diocese
In a May 2009 study, Sipe found that there were extensive problems in the sexual behavior of Burlington, Vermont, Catholic clergy. He examined the records of 102 priests "whose records were available" between 1950 and 2002. He claimed that, of this group, 23 priests were sexually involved with children under age 13, 15 were reported for involvement with married women and 19 were said to have had sexual relationships with adult men. He asserted that 49 could be said to have a homosexual orientation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2150625. VIAF identifies the subject as 79361756. The Library of Congress control number is n83185320. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2018, 1952 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Sipe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.