I'm not blaming them on the council. During the time of Pope Paul VI homosexual infiltration of the priesthood exploded. Yes it started well before the council but it increased dramatically under his pontificate.
My larger point is that it was already exploding by the early 1950s. From 1950 to 1960s, the number of abuser priests grows MORE THAN FIVE-FOLD. In 10 years. It almost doubles again by roughly 1980, but the explosion is well under way with men who were accepted for the priesthood starting, likely, in the late 1940s, and being in absolutely full swing, full explosion, by 1955.
Frankly, this likely understates how severe the problem probably already was in the 1950s, since the taboo against homosexuality was much, much greater in 1950, 1955, or even 1960, than in 1980.
The only thing that one can say about Pope Paul VI is that he, like Pope John XXIII, and Pope Pius XII before him, seemed entirely unable to resolve the problem.
It really took Pope John Paul II to wrestle the problem to the ground, to actually act in a manner that began to mitigate the abuse levels, and to begin to bring some sanity back to the seminarians. Even so, his actions, and even those of his successor, were not wholly successful.
But if they'd been followed by another worthy successor, I'd be more confident that the JPII-Benedict reforms would have taken deep root and flourished for a long time to come.
Now, I'm not so sure.
Time will tell.
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