Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my posts above. I am making a distinction about priests who molest small, pre-pubescent children. This is true child molestation, and its practitioners are apparently not much more likely to be homosexual than heterosexual in their public life -- they are frequently as likely to molest girls as boys.
On the other hand, most of the cases that the RC's are dealing with are with boys (never girls) around or after puberty -- lots of early teens. This is a separate deviance, and it is called homosexuality.
Is a 30 year old man who wants to have sex with a good-looking 14 year old girl a child-molester? No, he is a heterosexual. And if he has sex with her, even by seducing her and gaining her "consent", he is guilty of statutory rape, because she is under the age of consent.
That's what most of these sex-abuse cases are about -- homosexual priests seducing vulnerable young men who are under the age of consent and who are perhaps still a little confused about their sexuality. This is a common pratice in the homosexual world, and that's why they shouldn't be allowed in the priesthood.
Removing the celibacy requirement would eliminate most of this, but it wouldn't guard against that tiny group that molests small children.
Dear Agrarian,
The overwhelming number of underage victims in the recent scandals in the Catholic Church have been males. If I recall correctly, about 90% of the victims were males.
It has primarily been a problem of permitting homosexuals into the priesthood, as homosexuals appear to offend at a rate significantly higher than heterosexuals (in the general population, even though homosexuals make up perhaps 1 - 3% of the population, they commit approximately 1/3 of sexual offenses against minors under the age of consent).
However, it is correct to say that most of the offenses have not been against pre-pubescent children, but rather against boys on the verge, or well into puberty. Apparently, this may be part and parcel of the "gay culture," which encourages "chicken-hawking"; the sexual use of boys-on-the-verge-of-manhood.
sitetest
Pederasty is therefore always a special form of homosexual behavior, which is not true of pedophilia. It is satanic in either case, but that much more pronounced when it infects the Church.
Pederastry was common in all pagan countries, and still persists in very conservative Islamic societies. In Afghanistan and in Pakistan, for instance, there are teenage male "sex workers" or haliqs, and bachas in Uszbeki areas.