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To: GreatOne
I am not a modernist and do not favor a married clergy or any other such "reform". However, I do not agree with the following claim:

It is completely untrue that celibate priests are more likely to be pedophiles than any other group of men, married or not. Pedophilia affects only 0.3 percent of the population of Catholic clergy, and sexual abusers in general account for less than 2 percent of Catholic priests. These figures are comparable to rates among married men, as non-Catholic scholar Philip Jenkins points out in his book Pedophiles and Priests. Other Protestant denominations have admitted to having similar problems among their own married clergy, so clearly the problem is not with celibacy.

First of all, "celibate priests" are, by definition, not engaging in sexual activity with anybody. Second, I just do not buy into the statistical argument unless the term "pedophilia" is read to exclude "sex" with teenaged boys, in which case perhaps it is true. I don't think that ignoring the problem of active homosexuals in the priesthood is an effective way to defend priestly celibacy.

4 posted on 06/14/2002 10:38:33 AM PDT by Stingray51
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To: Stingray51
I personally think priestly celibacy is an anachronism (then again, I guess it's not for me to say, since I'm not Catholic), but OTOH I don't understand how getting rid of celibacy is supposed to solve the pedophilia problem. Is the argument that these priests are buggering boys because they can't get any? That's ridiculous.
53 posted on 06/14/2002 6:48:36 PM PDT by Bob Quixote
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