Most people who live chaste lives live them because they do not have a great desire to have sex with others in the first place. Many are not priests either, it’s just the kind of person they are. And there are several main reasons for it.
This is why we see the problems of forcing people with a normal libido into an unnatural permanent state of celibacy, and they look for an outlet of that desire and energy they have to suppress.
There is no biblical reason for leaders in the Christian church to not be married. Paul says he wishes more could be, but that is not a command you must be. The only place where this is required to be a leader is the Roman Catholic denomination. And they haven’t done themselves any favors by reducing excellent candidates out of potential great ministerial positions because they are honest that they can’t be celibate. So you get the pedophiles, the rapists, and the gays, or any hodgepodge of the above, in positions of authority over others, attempting to lecture them about morals while they and their archbishops do everything they can to cloak their own sins from the congregations.
And yes you can find married pastors and such that are into perversion, it’s not exclusive to the Roman church and we’ve never said that only they have the problem. But what you can’t find are churches who once discovered, won’t get rid of them, won’t shuffle them off to another unsuspecting church in their area. They get fired, they get prosecuted. The congregations get rid of them, they have the power to do so. Not so in the Roman Catholic churches. The Roman church because of its structure has systemically hid this from people, denied it was occurring, settled agreements only under vows of silence that those affected couldn’t mention it to anyone, moved people around they knew had problems and did not warn the parishes these problem priests were coming to. It’s the coverup and denial there even were problems being covered up.
We expect this kind of behavior from secular society, from worldly people, the unsaved, those still under control of the ruler of this world. What we don’t expect is this behavior from people in the church. Running the church. In positions of authority over others. That’s what makes it worse. At the same time condemning others for their little failings. That’s the problem.
Oh I’m a strong Protestant who believes the sexual requirement for all Christians(clergy and laity alike) is either keep it in marriage(as Jesus defined it in Matthew 19:4-6, not as our perverted, sinful society is redefining it) or chastity, no exceptions. In analyzing how Rome keeps married men out of the priesthood I find it an interesting contrast to what I find in the Evangelical Protestant world I inhabit. If a young man wants to be a minister here, he better make sure he’s either got a wife or is about to get one. Otherwise, most Bible believing churches wouldn’t even consider hiring him.
Thank you for putting that so well.
“The Roman church because of its structure has systemically hid this from people, denied it was occurring, settled agreements only under vows of silence that those affected couldn’t mention it to anyone, moved people around they knew had problems and did not warn the parishes these problem priests were coming to. It’s the coverup and denial there even were problems being covered up.”
These things have occurred not because of the structure of the Church, but rather because it has had some very evil bishops who have conspired to protect perverts and cover up their crimes.
Many bishops have been very straight in the way they have governed their dioceses and perpetrators immediately referred to the police. Unfortunately the good governance of a diocese does not make for good headlines in the MSM.
One thing that really does frustrate me is that when bad bishops have been involved in cover-ups, the secular authorities very rarely take action against them. A lot of these bishops should be in prison along with the perverts whose crimes they have facilitated.
However, in the UK, we are now finding that similar situations pertain in other organizations. The BBC has sheltered and facilitated celebrity paedophiles for years. The police are now hunting down the perverts, but nothing seems to be happening about those who facilitated them. Why?
Well, let's not forget the "First Pope" was married.
"And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever." (Matthew 8:14)
Now I'm sure Rome will give us the usual blather that somehow this was an aberration and why later the Roman Catholic Church, through some spiritual hocus-pocus, divined some reason priests shouldn't marry. But the fact is. Peter was married.