Married Priests?
I think that a change made to the priestly vow of celibacy a long time ago would have almost certainly eliminated much of the sexual abuse scandal that has pulled the Church down so much in the last few years. Apparently, priests were allowed to marry all the way up to the early 1100’s anyway, when the role of priests was “updated” to resemble Christ’s life more closely. This article is interesting in content and very surprising in concept.
Hypothetically speaking, I wonder if there would be a delineation in the Church between married and unmarried priests, if married priests are ever allowed. I’m thinking there would be. After all, the unmarried priests’ sacrafices would be greater and their lives would be more “Christ-like”, so you have to believe the Church would award them accordingly. Then you’d have the issue of priests wanting to remain celibate to boost their careers, with some of the same potential ill-effects that we have today as a result of priests being forbidden to marry. That might be a bit of a stretch, but I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility.
Also, I see a logical flaw in the claim that allowing priests to marry would have eliminated much of the horrible stuff that has happened over the years. Marrying an adult woman doesn’t cure one of being a homosexual pedophile and a lot of the molesting priests probably would not have chosen to get married anyways. I mean, a normal man, no matter how long it’s been since he’s had some action, isn’t going to resort to molesting children unless he has a strong tendency toward doing so to being with. Many of the guys probably would have done what they did whether they were married or not. Maybe I’m wrong about that though…
interesting article, by the way
I can’t help but take offense to the phrase homosexual pedophile. I feel the reason the majority of pedophilic priests prey on boys is beyond their sexual desires. The reason they do is two fold; access, and reliance on denial. The latter assuming a girl would be more likely to have faintly less shame in reporting a molesting priest than a boy.
I don’t fell homosexuality has anything to do with pedophilia. These priests probably aren’t homosexual at all, rather they’re sexually disturbed individuals and like rapists, they’re bent on power and domination and their crimes aren’t because of sex. Actuality societies (and the Churches) views on homosexuality is probably one of the reasons priests molest boys in the first place. As I said before, the shame and sinfulness of homosexuality forces their victims to bury the crimes.
Pedophiles come in all shades. Their sexual preferences have little to do with their illness.
Remove the word “homosexual”, if you prefer, and the overall point remains unchanged. But I think that if one has molested boys only, that makes him a homosexual pedophile by definition. Even if the “advantages” you mention of molesting boys instead of girls do exist, they are still choosing to molest boys. Furthermore, the reason of access is less applicable today than it used to be, when only boys were allow to be acolytes, although you’re probably right to say a girl would be more likely to report an incident than a boy.
Two questions:
Do you think Cas’s claim is correct? I would guess not, based on this statement: “they’re sexually disturbed individuals and like rapists, they’re bent on power and domination and their crimes aren’t because of sex.” You seem to be saying that they would molest regardless of marital status.
Do you think a boy would be more likely to report a molestation if the perpetrator were a female priest, since “homosexuality forces their victims to bury the crimes”?
Yes, but the connotation groups gay men with pedophiles. I think that’s misleading and does nothing but feed hate toward gay men. Every time I hear this issue being discussed in the media the terms “pedophile” and “gay men” are intertwined in an uncomfortable way.
I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand I feel the priesthood is a kind-of refuge for many disturbed individuals, therefore marriage may take some of that aspect away. It’s possible a lot of these men go into the priesthood as a last ditch effort to revolt their inner turmoil. I picture these men as “good Christians” just lost amongst their internal sins. If you take the celibacy away from them maybe they wouldn’t go toward the priesthood as salvation for their illness.
To answer your question directly, I agree with your first statement. I don’t feel these priests have “pent up” sexual feelings and are lashing out on innocent boys. Hell, if that were the case they would just go visit a Vegas brothel. Like I said before, I don’t think pedophilia is about getting laid.
Yes, but if I were the boy I’d keep my mouth shut! Hell no I ain’t saying nuttin’, I’d be getting some!
In short, the way I look at it is like this: becoming a priest is a very extreme choice and as far as my observations go, extreme behaviors (whether psychological or otherwise) swing only to other extreme behaviors. For instance, how many coke heads are born-again literalist Christians? Quite a few. So, the behavior may be there for many priests and their response was to become a priest, the complete, yet still extreme, response to it. As far as the others that don’t fall into that category, which are a relative few, I think marriage may have helped because suppressing sexuality is difficult and can manifest itself in a myriad of terrible ways.
By the way, my response is definitely not to say that ALL priests are susceptible to this condition but the nature of the position lends itslef to attract people with extreme tendencies. I firmly believe that most priests are very well behaved men and adhere to the tenets for being a priest.
Rick Santorum knows what caused the pedophile priest scandal. It’s the liberals in Massachucets, of course.
http://capitolbuzz.blogspot.com/2005/07/santorum-equates-sex-with-rape-as-he.html
So I guess by Santorum’s logic San Fransisco is next in line for a pedophile priest scandal. Then Ferndale.
After rereading the artice, I can see than my attempted joke doesn’t make much sense…my bad. Anyways, what an idiot!