"The sex scandals (with extremely rare exceptions) have nothing to do with celibacy. They have to do with homosexuality. It's not celibacy that leads men to hit on adolescent boys, almost universally."
You are right. But TC, the fact is that the celibate priesthood has attracted homosexuals in proportions rather beyond their presence in the general community. Being out in the world in parishes, as opposed to closed up in a monastery, just provides "opportunities", the "near occassions of sin" for them and some of them act on it. I am not suggesting that for that reason celibacy should be done away with, but making the Latin Rite priesthood less attractive as a "hiding place" for gays seems a good idea.
I agree ... but the fact that they have been ordained is a function of ideology, not of celibacy. The American Catholic heirarchy has been loaded with leftists, and they've tended to cuddle gays instead of monitoring or dismissing them.
The Boy Scouts realized the problem and instituted highly-effective screening procedures, along with security procedures for every adult, in about the same time period that the Church leaders here were going limp. It's a phenomenon of recent history, in my opinion, and the celibate priesthood is not a recent invention.
It's interesting that the public schools have not yet made the slightest effort to protect the students from sexual predation, either by teachers or by other students. One suspects this is because they are even more sheltered from (ahem) feedback than the Church heirarchy.
The numbers showed that the homosexual acts peaked AFTER V2. Come out come out where ever you are. There were probably diocese already leaning way left at the time.