[ichabod1]

I'm also quite sure that a respectable occupation with lifetime security which relieved men from the "why aren't you married" question has ALWAYS been overpopulated by those burdened with SSA.

That may be true, but it seems like in the old days there were at least equally many Fathers who conducted scandalous affairs with women, many of them married parishioners who came to him for counseling.

[Jim Noble]

in the old days there were at least equally many Fathers who conducted scandalous affairs with women, many of them married parishioners

100 000 of those men are now married, and no longer functioning as priests.

It is an interesting sidelight that some bishops were much, much more harsh with priests who announced their intention to marry than they were with priests who destroyed the lives of little boys.