Archbishop links priestly celibacy and Catholic sex abuse scandals

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I’ll assume we’re talking about pedophilia and the word was mispelled? There is paedogensesis which is defined as juvenile animal forms.

I’ve known of married men who have molested kids. I know of bachelors and widowers who, deprivied of sex, are not driven to molest kids.

I think it is the responsibility of parents not to leave their children alone with any adult. Chaperone your kids.
 
Not to be rude, I hope, but the Guardian is not exactly noted for accuracy when it comes to reporting, especially reporting on religions.
From CNA:

Vienna, Austria, Mar 11, 2010 / 08:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After media outlets misinterpreted an article by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn to say that he is questioning the Church’s rule of priestly celibacy, several high ranking churchmen have spoken out in praise of celibacy as a gift. They also dismissed the idea that celibacy is connected to pedophilia. Greeting participants and introducing the sessions for the international theological conference taking place at the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome on Thursday, Cardinal Claudio Hummes called the celibacy of priests “a gift of the Holy Spirit.” Other cardinals have also weighed in on the role of celibacy in recent days.
“Priestly celibacy is a gift of the Holy Spirit that asks to be understood and lived with fullness of meaning and joy, in total rapport with the Lord,” said Cardinal Hummes, the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, according to ASCA news of Italy.
“This unique and privileged relationship with God makes the priest the true witness of a singular spiritual paternity …” continued Cardinal Hummes.
He went on to say that “the Church, insofar as the mystical body of Christ, sees all faithful associated by the gift of being a priestly people, but at the same time we know that Christ chooses some (who) are priests that continue the mission for him.”
The question of celibacy and its possible role in recent cases of sexual abuses against minors has been in European headlines over the last two months.
According to an ANSA report on Thursday, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas International, said, “I don’t understand how there can be a link between celibacy and child sex abuse,” and noted that the media frenzy only focused on abuse cases involving priests.
Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg, Germany, who is now dealing with sex abuse cases in his diocese, said it was “nonsense” to associate pedophilia with celibacy.
The comments by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna which sparked speculation that he supported a reconsideration of the discipline of celibacy were made in an article he wrote for the diocesan magazine “Thema Kirche.”
In the article, Cardinal Schönborn called for an “unflinching examination” of possible reasons for pedophilia, and said that this includes the issues of training priests "as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution.”
“It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the church and of society as a whole.”
His comments were clarified by diocesan spokesman after headlines in international media touting his support for an end to celibacy were published. The spokesman said that Cardinal Schönborn was not questioning the Church’s position on celibacy “in any way.”
 
Tantum_ergo said:
Not to be rude, I hope, but the Guardian is not exactly noted for accuracy when it comes to reporting, especially reporting on religions.
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I won’t fault you even were you to be rude. This looks like a hit-piece to me. Is this even responsible journalism? Or is it journalistic malpractice?

As you can see, it got my dander up.

VC
 
Cardinals and bishops have to learn to dumb things down when they talk to reporters. Schonborn is highly intelligent and his statement appears to be carefully nuanced – naturally it is going to be garbled by the press, even when they are not acting maliciously.
 
paedophilia is an older spelling of the word that respects the word’s origins.
aicirt said:
I’ll assume we’re talking about pedophilia and the word was mispelled? There is paedogensesis which is defined as juvenile animal forms.

I’ve known of married men who have molested kids. I know of bachelors and widowers who, deprivied of sex, are not driven to molest kids.

I think it is the responsibility of parents not to leave their children alone with any adult. Chaperone your kids.
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Usbek_de_Perse said:
The internet is easier, less heavy and takes up less space.😃
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And the obvious was staring at me the whole time. :aok:

Believe you’re the OP. What do you attribute the reason for pedophilia when one of yours does it? Interested because Episcopalian priests are usually married.
 
aicirt said:
And the obvious was staring at me the whole time. :aok:

Believe you’re the OP. What do you attribute the reason for pedophilia when one of yours does it? Interested because Episcopalian priests are usually married.
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There has been massive confusion concerning sexual abuse.

Pedodfilia, also referred to as Paedofilia, is sexual contact between an adult and a minor prepubescent child. The general thinking in psychology seems to revolve around arrested sexual development in the adult. In short, twisted thinking because they never “grew up in terms of sexual maturity”.

What we saw primarily in the sexual abuse in the Church was not pedofilia, but what is more properly termed ephibofilia (and may have other names), and in spite of the backlash against many people’s favorite “poster child”, appears to be specifically an issue of a subset of homosexuality, as it is primarily adult male with pubescent (teenage) males. There is even a term “on the street” for the adult males - “chicken hawks”. When the first comments came out, somewhat after the dust had settled on the majority of cases of the 90’s concerning the driving force behind the abuse to be homosexuality, those who wish to coddle the homosexual agenda came unglued. Factually, something like 81% of the cases of sexual abuse were between adult males (priests & religious) and male teenage boys. the rest were divided up between adult males and females, and adult males and (primarily, but not exclusively) prepubescent males.
 
sidbrown said:
Whatever. I think that priests should be required to get married. How much longer are we going to be hearing about these perverts in the Catholic priesthood?
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Perhaps you did not read all of the thread. Given the large percentage of child sexual abuse cases that occur because of dads, how is that supposed to change anything?
 
sidbrown said:
Whatever. I think that priests should be required to get married. How much longer are we going to be hearing about these perverts in the Catholic priesthood?
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If you think that simply being married will stop pedophilia or ephebophilia (attraction to teens) in anyone, you don’t understand the problem. There are plenty of married pedophiles, etc.

I have long held an opinion in which I become more confirmed; I believe that the celibate priesthood has provided a convenient hiding place for those with disordered sexual tendencies. Until recently, there has hardly been a more respected “profession”, and those who likely would not have been drawn to marriage anyway would surely have seen it as a viable option. There are also those perverted individuals, I am certain, who saw the opportunity for proximity to young children, altar boys and adolescents as an irresistible draw.

I am in no way intimating that those with homosexual attractions are more likely to violate young children, as pedophiles molest those of both sexes; ephebophilia, however, does manifest itself in a homosexual attraction.

Celibacy, and the sacrifice involved, is noble and good. My own feeling is that optional celibacy might honor the discipline and tradition while perhaps making the priesthood less attractive to those who would use it to their own perverse purposes.
 
dixieagle said:
If you think that simply being married will stop pedophilia or ephebophilia (attraction to teens) in anyone, you don’t understand the problem. There are plenty of married pedophiles, etc.

I have long held an opinion in which I become more confirmed; I believe that the celibate priesthood has provided a convenient hiding place for those with disordered sexual tendencies. Until recently, there has hardly been a more respected “profession”, and those who likely would not have been drawn to marriage anyway would surely have seen it as a viable option. There are also those perverted individuals, I am certain, who saw the opportunity for proximity to young children, altar boys and adolescents as an irresistible draw.

I am in no way intimating that those with homosexual attractions are more likely to violate young children, as pedophiles molest those of both sexes; ephebophilia, however, does manifest itself in a homosexual attraction.

Celibacy, and the sacrifice involved, is noble and good. My own feeling is that optional celibacy might honor the discipline and tradition while perhaps making the priesthood less attractive to those who would use it to their own perverse purposes.
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I am not buying it. I think that a good and decent Catholic wife would keep a sharp eye out for problems. I think that all priests should be required to be married and celibacy should be done away with completely. All of these stories coming out every day of perverts and coverups are thoroughly disgusting and shameful…
 
sidbrown said:
I am not buying it. I think that a good and decent Catholic wife would keep a sharp eye out for problems. I think that all priests should be required to be married and celibacy should be done away with completely. All of these stories coming out every day of perverts and coverups are thoroughly disgusting and shameful…
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You can’t possibly think that these priests molested children because the priests weren’t free to marry, can you? In this day and age when information is available at the touch of an internet screen, how can you still fall for lies?

Why, any perusal of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) of psychiatric disorders under “pedophilia” would show you quite clearly that men who prey on children do not do so because they can’t release themselves ‘any other way’ such as through marriage.

To imply that the reason for pedophilia among priests is that they cannot marry is simply biased, blind ignorance masquerading as ‘concern’. If psychiatrists (no ‘friend’ to most religious beliefs) don’t find pedophilia to be what you claim it is, why should we accept your unsupported word over the actual documented understandings of experts in the field?
 
sidbrown said:
I am not buying it. I think that a good and decent Catholic wife would keep a sharp eye out for problems. I think that all priests should be required to be married and celibacy should be done away with completely. All of these stories coming out every day of perverts and coverups are thoroughly disgusting and shameful…
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You’re just not getting it. Most of the molestation was perpetrated by ephebophiles; as I pointed out earlier, this is a homosexual attraction to teens (in this case, obviously, boys). These men would not be likely to marry anyway. True pedophiles can be attracted to either young boys or girls, and many are married; this was a very small portion of the clerical abuse cases.

Indeed the abuse and coverups are disgusting and shameful. However, in order to make helpful suggestions, one must first understand what is actually going on.
 
Tantum_ergo said:
You can’t possibly think that these priests molested children because the priests weren’t free to marry, can you?
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I give you my opinion. Yes, I do think so. If they were attracted to children, they would shy away from marriage anyway. In any case, for the few perverts who would choose to marry and be priests, I think that a good and decent Catholic wife would in time spot any problems and report them. So, I am in favor of all priests getting married to a decent and devout Catholic woman and completely doing away with priestly celibacy. I am totally shamed and disgusted by these reports of perversion and coverups. This cannot go on.
 
dixieagle said:
You’re just not getting it. Most of the molestation was perpetrated by ephebophiles; as I pointed out earlier, this is a homosexual attraction to teens (in this case, obviously, boys). These men would not be likely to marry anyway. True pedophiles can be attracted to either young boys or girls, and many are married; this was a very small portion of the clerical abuse cases.

Indeed the abuse and coverups are disgusting and shameful. However, in order to make helpful suggestions, one must first understand what is actually going on.
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I would say that you are not the one who is not getting it. By requiring priests to marry a good and decent Catholic wife, the number of perverts in the Catholic priesthood would decline and further, for the small number remaining, a good and decent Catholic woman would be able to help in spotting the problem and alerting the police to the crimes committed by these perverts.
 
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