Pennsylvania Priest Charged With Groping 17-Year-Old Girl

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Scott84

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Will there be any end to this corruption and sickness that has gripped God’s Holy Church? In this poster’s opinion, it is time (it’s been time) to end the rule of celibacy within the Church.

The celibacy rule was not even a part of the early Church doctrine, nor is it biblical either. Very early in the history of the Catholic Church, priests were allowed to marry and have children. I suspect somewhere along the line the Church realized it would be better if priests weren’t allowed to marry. That way they could devote themselves full time to spreading the Gospel and interpreting it to their flocks. It also meant more wealth could flow into the Church and could be centrally controlled. The Church made a law that banned the children of priests from inheriting property, thus enriching the Church further. Then there was a call for an outright ban on marriage for priests. This was rejected during the First Counsel of Nicaea, brought about by the Roman Emperor Constantine, but over time the Church got its way and priests were ordered to be celibate.

Jesus was celibate, but He was the Son of God. For the rest of us sinners, it’s a bit more difficult to pull the plug on sexuality. The Bible itself states, “If they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” 1 Corinthians 7:9 In this manner the act of sex is also ideally aligned with love and caring for another as part of God’s plan. That’s how it’s supposed to work, but roughly 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, thus only proving, for the most part, the fallen nature of man.

The point is this: It’s not natural for human beings to suppress the sex drive. Very few can do it. By not allowing Catholic priests to marry, the Church discourages family men who have a control on their libidos. Instead, too many are warped by sexual frustration and begin molesting children. For far too long the Church has ignored or hidden a problem of epidemic proportions under their pulpits. Priest who weren’t arrested and jailed were merely shuffled off to different parishes, where they continued their vile ways of abuse.

All in all, I feel it is time the Church takes a long hard look in the mirror at itself and come to the realization its celibacy policy is not working, it may be controversial even to think about changing this longstanding policy, but it can (and should) change in my opinion. Enough is enough! This scandal has severely damaged the Church, this is all Catholic faithful can talk about these days. And no doubt many people feel betrayed by those they placed their trust into. If you can’t trust a priest, who can you trust?
 
Celibacy isn’t the problem and there will probably always be some isolated cases of abuse.
 
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Honestly, it may be a good idea to end the mandated celibate priesthood in the Roman church (Note the Eastern Catholic churches don’t mandate celibate priests).

But I wouldn’t use the abuse scandal as the reason why.
 
Scott84 said:
Will there be any end to this corruption and sickness that has gripped God’s Holy Church? In this poster’s opinion, it is time (it’s been time) to end the rule of celibacy within the Church.
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Why do you think ending celibacy will stop sexual assault?
It would increase the candidate pool but people will still sin and commit sexual assault.
 
In fact, if the church did end the celibate mandate now, it would give mixed signals (in the midst of the scandals).

Because celibacy IS a good, noble, and holy calling. Jesus practiced it. Paul recommended it.

But perhaps it is something that should be for the monastics. In the sense, you should feel called to it. The call to celibacy is not inherent to the priesthood.

Again, I’m not so convinced we should end the mandate simply because of the abuse scandals. BUT ending mandated celibacy in the Roman church could help with many other things, including: (1) promoting vocations and (2) ending clericalism.
 
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Just at the right time… Amazing…it’s not a gay priest as many like to assume.
 
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  1. If celibacy causes sexual abuse, why do married men and/or men with active sex lives commit sexual abuse?
  2. Celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma. It can be changed and that is completely up to the people who make the decisions, but not up to the laity to decide. Lifting the restriction of celibacy MAY be appropriate at this time or it may not.
  3. Celibacy for priests means there is never a “Wife/children OR my congregation” issue. No getting away from the fact that there is ALWAYS another gift of self-donation needed by our priests. At some point, either the congregation goes without or the wife/children go without. Celibacy removes some of that problem.
  4. There is sexual abuse within the Orthodox churches and their priests are married.
  5. Even within the Orthodox churches, there is a requirement of celibacy…all single men who are ordained are required to be celibate. The difference is that, in the Orthodox church, married men are not held back from the priesthood. Celibacy is NOT a “bad” thing.
 
@therese1998

I agree with much of this.

I just think that the mandated celibacy may affect other aspects of church life, including promoting clericalism, which, after all, was a component of the sexual abuse scandals.

IDK, in my intuitive opinion, it seems harder for an unhealthy clerical culture to form — or at least be increased – when a priest has a wife and family.

The ends may not justify the means. But we could at least make it optional, no?
 
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I get your point. I really do. And I don’t think it would be necessarily “bad” for the Roman Catholic church to consider removing the bachelor requirement in order to enter the priesthood. But I don’t think priestly celibacy is a mistake or a cause of the abuse, either. So change must be made for other reasons than because there has been sexual abuse in the church.
catholic1seeks said:
it seems harder for an unhealthy clerical culture to form — or at least be increased – when a priest has a wife and family.
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I don’t know. I lived within the Protestant culture for a long time and the tendency toward cult of personality , “S/he would NEVER…” , clericalism is just as strong with married clergy as without, albeit perhaps in a more…subtle or not duly recognized way.

My instinct is that change must be very carefully considered, and have a basis outside of “because that was what was in place when the abuse occurred” rationale as well. The Church needs to stop abuses and change will need to occur. But change should be driven by the mandate to draw closer to Christ…not as a knee-jerk, “we gotta do something” reaction to an admittedly horrible problem. Drawing closer to the teachings of Christ should be the basis of any change made.

Not sure if I’m adequately expressing what I mean…hope so anyway.
 
catholic1seeks said:
Honestly, it may be a good idea to end the mandated celibate priesthood in the Roman church (Note the Eastern Catholic churches don’t mandate celibate priests).
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Maybe. But remember that there are married men who are involved in groping as well.
 
Isn’t there an Anglican Ordinariate where married priests…along with their congregations have become part of the Catholic church…does the church have to support the whole family…would there be parishioners who perhaps give more than others who would feel they have more (name removed by moderator)ut into how the church is run…could that cause conflict between the priest and parishioners…I know some independent Protestant churches do have problems with some who donate more who feel they have more say in church matters than others…it would be interesting if anyone knows about the Ordinariate church here on CAF
 
Are you trying to get that that being celibate can make someone turn into a child molester?

Should we be wary of 40 yr old virgins that haven’t found someone to marry?

It’s also the laity that have to remain pure. No fornication.

Correct me if I’m wrong men are not forced into the priesthood they have a choice to become a priest ?
 
Celibacy isnt the problem, its the fact that those priests were abused themselves and the open door that allowed those demons in are now using that priest to molest others.

If celibacy was taken away anc priests could get married there will still be abuse but it will include the family unit also.

Untill those priests resolve there abuse issue from those that did it to them then there will always be an open door for the demons fo further there agenda of using the priest to abuse others.
 
feed_me said:
its the fact that those priests were abused themselves and the open door that allowed those demons in are now using that priest to molest others.
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Where do you get that from? Are you basing that on the fallacy that victims of sexual abuse go on to abuse others? That has as much credibility as celibacy being the problem.
 
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Regardless if these are previously abused people or not. The question is for me is what drew these men to become priests?
 
many names were removed from schools here . they waited until the people were convicted though.
 
Scott84 said:
The celibacy rule was not even a part of the early Church doctrine, nor is it biblical either.
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celibacy really began with monks who did not want constantinople type ideals in some respects. Constantinople unified the church into beliefs and doctrines we now have, specifically the humanity and divinity of Jesus. before him, to declare the divinity of Jesus could get you martyred, and did.
Constantinople built churches, paid bishops, set up a kind of hierarchy through authority vested to bishops, deacons, presbyters . but there were people who disagreed with the clerical and commercial direction the church was moving into. They became monks.
So men moved out into the desert and started practicing a very spiritual form of early christianity as compared with the Graeco - Roman laity and clerical form. And were celibate.

Bishops were recruited from amongst these monks, and monks were appointed to diocese . It added a new dimension to the spirituality of the church.

St Antony is credited as the first and founder of Monks, he lived in the desert as a hermit for 20 years or so. In the 4th century.
 
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