I think its a great move. The celibacy requirement has been an obvious driver in the Church’s boy-abusing problem.
Get rid of it.
Celebacy is the cause of homosexual child molestation?
It has NOTHING to do with iit at all...Ministers are allowed to be married and the incidencw of abuse is higher in the Protestant church, teachers, scout programs Etc...The cause of the problem is homosexuality....Period.
That's never been true and the research has backed up that celibacy is not a factor.
In a comprehensive study of more than 20 years of data on clerical abuse, Philip Jenkins, the Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor, and author of Pedophiles and Priests, found no evidence that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination.
IN fact, clergy in general had lower abuse rates than many other professions (teachers, hotel-motel-restaurant workers, athletes, social workers!).
Wisconsin-based Church Mutual Insurance Co. has 100,000 client churches of various denominations, and has seen a steady filing of about five sexual molestation cases a week for more than a decade, even though its client base has grown.
“It would be incorrect to call it a Catholic problem,” said Church Mutual’s risk control manager, Rick Schaber. “We do not see one denomination above another. It’s equal. It’s also equal among large metropolitan churches and small rural churches.”
Iowa-based Guide One Center for Risk Management, which insures more than 40,000 congregations, also said Catholic churches are not considered a greater risk or charged higher premiums.
“Our claims experience shows this happens evenly across denominations,” said spokeswoman Melanie Stonewall.