Firstly, the wolves go where the sheep are. This is why wherever contact with teens and children are, predators will do their best to worm their way in there no matter where it is. Secondly, the seminaries do not have to be lax (read liberal) because "nobody wants to be a priest". Sure there is a shortage, but there has been a great increase in vocations as of late because seminaries are becoming more orthodox, not more lax.
If they let priests get married, it would draw more to the profession and the seminaries could afford to be stricter.
Then why is their a priestly shortage in the Orthodox Church as well where priests are allowed to marry? Celibacy is not the issue.
The lack of sexual activity does not cause sexual deviance, we agree on that. I know the celebacy thing made the idea of me personally going into the priesthood a non-starter. I can’t possibly be the only one.
"For those who can accept it, accept it." Also, St. Paul recommended being like him, celibate.
You aren't the only one, but you can become a permanent deacon. Married men can be ordained to the Diaconate.
There does seem to be a high correlation between orthodoxy and vocations. The high school from which I graduated years ago was, at the time, not exactly a pillar of Catholic orthodoxy (but then, I graduated in 1978, not exactly an era of high orthodoxy here in the United States). Our school produced very few vocations (although my class, interestingly, did produce a very late vocation in one of my classmates, who was eventually ordained in his 40s).
Over the years since then, a lot of folks who love my old school worked hard to make it more of the Catholic institution that it should have been all along. The level of Catholicity there now is sufficient that I have entrusted the school with my own two beloved sons. It is a Catholic high school that works to faithfully transmit Catholic faith.
And the vocations have come. A school of a thousand young men, a young man from the class of ‘01 was ordained to the priesthood this past June, and there are currently 9 or 10 young men who are recent graduates or recent faculty studying for the priesthood.
Orthodoxy works.
sitetest