There were THOUSANDS of homosexual-pedophile priests in the US and around the world. Thousands of them. There should be none. The Church should be held to a MUCH HIGHER STANDARD. I grant you there are a huge number of pedophiles in our public schools as well. Why do pedophiles like working in schools? Same reason why robbers like robbing banks. That’s where the money is. But public schools are secular institutions. Churches are supposed to be doing God’s work and are therefore held to much higher standards. Even if just one or two bad priests get in, that can have a devastating impact. Compulsive homosexual-pedophile behavior is almost always serial, with many victims involved.
To say that only a small percentage of priests was involved is compared to the general population, seems to me a way of mitigating what was actually a HUGE problem that CANNOT be understated. I know this first hand. My own archdiocese was forced to pay a $660 MILLION settlement with the victims. That is an enormous sum which will impact us for decades. Other archdiocese across the country have been brought to the brink of bankruptcy. Many have been forced to close down a number of churches. It will take decades to fully recover from this horrendous scandal. And the role many bishops and cardinals played, shuffling these pedophiles around from one parish to another instead of promptly reporting them to law enforcement authorities simply made the problem much worse.
I do not claim that the Church’s policy of compulsory clerical celibacy causes homosexual or pedophile behavior. But for many decades it did create an atmosphere, and in some cases a perfect cover, attractive to literally thousands of such individuals and Lord only knows how many victims.
Compulsory clerical celibacy is not God’s plan. Holy matrimony is God’s plan. There is nothing in scripture mandating such a draconian policy. It is a policy which needs to be thoroughly reviewed and explained as to why it is still necessary. It was not part of the early Church tradition nor is it remotely related to anything which can be found in the Bible. What is the purpose of it?
This is not true. Of the priests guilty of what is called, generally, "sexual abuse," the vast majority were homosexuals hitting on post-pubescent male youths. This is a damnable sin as well as a crime under law --- deeply harmful, disgusting and depraved--- but it is not pedophilia: it is homosexuals who like adolescents and young men.
I invite you to check the research before you make such sweeping statements.Philip Jenkins is a good place to start.