Roman Catholic Church should end priest celibacy, report sex abuse: Aussie panel

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An Australian inquiry into child abuse could rock the Roman Catholic Church.
The panel on Friday called on the church to repeal its celibacy requirement for priests, and said clergy should face prosecution if they fail to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released its 17-volume report and made almost 200 recommendations following a five-year investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions responded to sexual abuse of children in Australia over 90 years.
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The Fox News article states:
The report reads: “We conclude that there is an elevated risk of child sex abuse where compulsorily celibate male clergy or religious have privileged access to children in certain types of Catholic institutions, including schools, residential institutions and parishes.”
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On what do they base that conclusion on? It’s very important that they reveal what they base that conclusion on so that that can be analysed thoroughly. The USA has the same Catholic celibacy requirements as exists in Australia and various sources don’t report the Catholic Church as having an increased risk of abuse in the USA. And evidence from insurance companies also indicates that abuse is not higher in the Catholic Church compared to other Christian denominations which don’t have a celibacy requirement: Per Catholic.com:
Dr. Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State, is the author of Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis. He observes,
My research of cases over the past 20 years indicates no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination—or indeed, than non-clergy. However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported. . . . My concern over the “pedophile priest” issue is not to defend evil clergy, or a sinful church (I cannot be called a Catholic apologist, since I am not even a Catholic). But I am worried that justified anger over a few awful cases might be turned into ill-focused attacks against innocent clergy. The story of clerical misconduct is bad enough without turning into an unjustifiable outbreak of religious bigotry against the Catholic Church. (“The Myth of the Pedophile Priest,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 3, 2010)
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Bold text by me.
 
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Also from above cited Catholic.com article:
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, notes: “We don’t see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this [abuse] or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone else. I can tell you without hesitation that we have seen cases in many religious settings, from traveling evangelists to mainstream ministers to rabbis and others” (Pat Wingert, “Mean Men,” Newsweek, April 8, 2010). Also supportive of this conclusion is professor of psychology Dr. Thomas Plante, who writes:
Catholic clergy aren’t more likely to abuse children than other clergy or men in general. According to the best available data (which is pretty good, mostly coming from a comprehensive report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004, as well as several other studies), 4 percent of Catholic priests in the USA sexually victimized minors during the past half century. No evidence has been published at this time that states that this number is higher than clergy from other religious traditions. The 4 percent figure is lower than school teachers (at 5 percent) during the same time frame and perhaps as much as half of the numbers of the general population of men. (Do the Right Thing, psychologytoday.com, March 24, 2010)

But psychologists aren’t the only ones suggesting that priests are no more likely to abuse minors than other members of the public. Insurance companies stay in business by calculating the likelihood of various events taking place, including death, car accidents, and abuse. They have a huge financial interest in objective standards of evidence. In 2010, Newsweek reported,

Since the mid-1980s, insurance companies have offered sexual misconduct coverage as a rider on liability insurance, and their own studies indicate that Catholic churches are not higher risk than other congregations. Insurance companies that cover all denominations, such as Guide One Center for Risk Management, which has more than 40,000 church clients, does not charge Catholic churches higher premiums. (Wingert, “Mean Men”)
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Jenkins said there has been no formal study comparing denominations for rates of child abuse. However, insurers have been assessing the risks since they began offering riders on liability policies in the 1980s. Two of the largest insurers report no higher risks in covering Catholic churches than Protestant denominations.
Wisconsin-based Church Mutual Insurance Co. has 100,000 client churches 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.
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http://blogs.denverpost.com/hark/2010/05/25/scandal-creates-contempt-for-catholic-clergy/39/
 
Okay, the problem isn’t celibacy, the problem is the lack thereof. How people can even get this in their brain the two are related is beyond me, then how does that explain the recent abuse scandals in Hollywood and public schools?
 
I’m a Protestant and I don’t hold the view those in pastoral roles need to be celibate. That said, to equate celibacy with sex abuse is one of the most anti-scientific claims made. I’m sure celibacy caused all those sex abuse cases in non-Catholic institutions, from religious to secular. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.) This dishonest claim is nothing but a reinforcement of the dogmatisation of the sexual revolution as referenced in a First Things article. Society has gone from slutshaming to virgin shaming in the name of compassion.


We live in a ‘post-truth’ world, which actually started in the 1970s and not last year as some are claiming. And those who push the celibacy = sex abuser fiction are contributors to the ‘post-truth/post-fact’ world. It’s much worse and more sinister than the fake news stories of 2016 because this hate-filled narrative has successfully masqueraded itself as ‘fact’ whereas the latter is obviously false.
 
An interesting article by Mary Eberstadt.

"To begin with a point to which many Christian thinkers would agree, the United States and other nations rooted in Judeo-Christianity have entered a time of paganization—what we might also call “re-paganization.”
 
Totally agree. If you are a virgin or celibate, it is only a matter of time before you will become a sexual pervert according to them. Unfortunately, in this world, everything revolves around sex.
 
I would like to see the celibacy rule repealed for priests but not bishops, and I do believe this would have an effect of opening up the priesthood to more individuals to choose from.
 
Metis1 said:
I would like to see the celibacy rule repealed for priests but not bishops, and I do believe this would have an effect of opening up the priesthood to more individuals to choose from.
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Then why do the the Orthodox churches have a priest shortage also? They can be married but still have a shortage!
 
Certainly it’s possible, but I know of some Catholics who were in the seminary at one time who would consider the opportunity to become a priest. One of them, who’s in his late 40’s, is actually taking classes right now to become a deacon.
 
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