Posted on 05/19/2010 8:11:51 AM PDT by markomalley
NO!!!!!!!!
The celibacy issue is a straw man argument, imho.
>>Does Celibacy Contribute to Clerical Sex Abuse?<<
Is the Pope Catholic?
Hahaha! I crack myself up!
How about -- if homosexuals were kept out of positions of leadership, there would be less abuse of teenage boys?
The problem is homosexuality, not celibacy.
Celibacy never stopped monks in 16th century England from having lots of fun...plus wives.
As for today, a lot of liberal Catholics make this argument; but I think for priests with strong vocations, it just isn’t a problem.
I actually think it has some validity. Paul said, and I use the Robroy translation, “it is best to be single like me, but if you’re horny, get married.”
Statistics and the psychology of peer pressure dictate that at least SOME that have taken a vow of celibacy are horny and are gonna strongly regret that vow at some point in their life.
I am a man, and I know the heart of man. Especially those that actually have a sex drive. “A man’s gotta know his limitations” - Dirty Harry
Bingo!!!
There are tens of thousands of priests. Only a tiny fraction of one percent are sexual abusers. The idea that celibacy is responsible is ridiculous.
If priests were fooling around with other women, I’d say there was logic to your argument, but how does getting married stop homosexual priests from fooling around with young boys?
I think the problem is more likely tied to homosexuality in the ranks of priests rather than celibacy specifically. Your average heterosexual male is not going to turn to teenage boys if overtaken by urges while celibate.
However, whether Christians with homosexual proclivities seek refuge in the priesthood due to celibacy is a somewhat different question.
SnakeDoc
So when you get "horny" do you start trolling for young boys? I hope that isn't your logic.
Double BINGO!
If the abusing priests actually had been celibate, there would have been no abuse. So, no, it’s not celibacy that’s causing the problem.
This skips right past the nature of the abuse itself. Are we talking about a majority of priests being overcome by physical urges, entering into an otherwise unremarkable sexual union with an adult female? If this were to be the case, then perhaps difficulty in maintaining celibacy could be a plausible explanation.
But, no, there seems to have been (and seems to still be albeit at a reduced rate) an element of betrayal of trust, of abusing minors, and largely not even female minors but males.
As a result, it’s ludicrous to claim that the vow of celibacy is driving errant priests into subjecting minor males to sex acts. There is something else at work, here. They’re homosexuals, and they like pubescent males. Why such individuals are in the priesthood to begin with, and why they’ve ever been allowed to remain, is a very significant contributing factor in the greater controversy.
The whole argument is just as convoluted as saying that abstinence is a failure, that it “doesn’t work.” Well, clearly, by definition it does work. Those who become pregnant or acquire an STD failed to be abstinent. It’s a misplaced attribution of “failure,” there, at a minimum.
No. But homosexuality and pederasty do.
I think the disconnect is that the vast majority of abuse victims are teenage boys ... not girls. Heterosexuals with natural urges are not going to turn to boys when failing at celibacy. They’ll fail with adult girls.
The root problem is homosexuality ... and the better question is, at least in my mind, whether celibacy leads men who are otherwise Christian, and attempting to resist homosexual urges, to seek refuge in the priesthood.
SnakeDoc
From another article:
No researcher so far has assessed that more than 50 percent of Roman Catholic clergy at any one time are in fact practicing celibacy.
Sexual abuse of minors is only one type of clerical sexual activity. The 2004 John Jay Report concluded from a survey of church files that 6.5 percent of priests ordained between 1960 and 1984 were involved in sex abuse of minors. My study from ethnological data concluded that 6 percent from that same period were abusers.
Celibacy was voluntary until the 1100s. Mandated celibacy does not appear to me to be working.
Celibacy is not of the creator of the universe. It is not prescribed by YHvH; it is Proscribed by YHvH. Celibacy is only found in Pagan religions worshiping the Evil One. Of cause it does.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
This article starts out with 4% being “accused.” I stopped reading right about there.
To make any sort of case, we need to know how many were guilty. The best we could do is know how many are “convicted.”
Anyone can be “accused,” and the RC church has deep pockets. They are an obvious target for fraud.
I have no doubt that many priests have molested over the years, using their robes as a cloak for their evil. However, the number of priests “accused” is not helpful to analyze the celibacy question.
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