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We've all heard them, now you rationally explain them away.
These are all good arguments. On the other hand, the arguments against celibacy, in my opinion, always seem to come off as inherently illogical.
NYer, this is one of the silliest series arguments I've ever seen for priestly celebacy. There are only two arguments which have any validity at all.
1. The vocation of celebacy is the crown jewel of The Church
2. Its just the way history worked out in the Latin Church (which is a variation on the Orthodox and Eastern Rite Churches in communion with Rome knowing what they are doing with a married priesthood and Rome neither does nor would).
Bottom line, this stuff always leaves me feeling that the real reason the Latin Church won't have a married priesthood is that you people in the pews simply won't pay for it and Rome as a practical matter can't.
Excellent posot!
Interesting and I am sure many are married.
Clergy Sexual Abuse
written by Frances Park
Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, Inc. Newsletter, July, 1996. Copyright © 1996
It is commonly believed that clergy sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem that does not happen in other churches. In a 1983 doctoral thesis by Richard Blackmon, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner and 38% admitted to other sexualized contact with a parishioner.1 In separate denominational surveys, 48% of United Church of Christ female ministers and 77% of United Methodist female ministers reported having been sexually harassed in church.2 Although the actual extent of the problem is unknown, the significance of clergy sexual abuse is acknowledged by the denominational leaders of all Christian churches.3
http://www.familyresearchinst.org/FRR_03_04.html