How can people continue to insist that a system which accepts only men uninterested in women and and then grants them spiritual and temporal authority over young males is not an ironclad guarantee of terrible abuses?
“How can people continue to insist that a system which accepts only men uninterested in women and and then grants them spiritual and temporal authority over young males is not an ironclad guarantee of terrible abuses?”
You’ll find this wherever you find PEOPLE period. Schoolteachers can marry...
Whoever said these men were not interested in women? The Catholic Church does have some married priests but these are in the Eastern Catholic Churches and amongst converts from protestant denominations. Even in the Eastern churches, though, there have always been some restrictions on marriage and ordination. Although married men may become priests, unmarried priests may not marry, and married priests, if widowed, may not remarry. Moreover, there is an ancient Eastern discipline of choosing bishops from the ranks of the celibate monks, so their bishops are all unmarried. Priestly celibacy is not an unchangeable dogma but a disciplinary rule.
St. Paul makes a case for preferring celibacy to marriage: "Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. . . those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. . . . The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband" (7:27-34).
Paul’s conclusion: He who marries "does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better" (7:38).
If this is your argument, then please explain
Sexual Abuse of Children by Protestant Ministers
A local rabbi, married with children, was recently arrested for sexual abuse of children. As you can see, there is no difference between those who choose marriage and those who prefer the celibate life.