Why are there so many paedophile priests and yet so many Catholics?

Question

Every day in the paper we read about priests who have had their way with innocent young children, and many which we will never know about, and yet Catholics close their eyes to this type of behaviour?

Answer 1

You should also be asking the following questions:

"Why are there so many paedophile teachers and yet so many students?"

"Why are there so many paedophile Boy Scout leaders and yet so many Boy Scouts?"

"Why are there so many paedophile coaches and yet so many athletes?"

No, we do not close our eyes.

Did you know that less than 4% of all priests have been accused of sexual abuse of children?

Did you know that there has been a nationwide survey of all priests and that hundreds have been dismissed because there has been a single accusation of sexual abuse?

Did you know that there have been nationwide policies set for the prevention of child abuse for the past five years with annual audits of every diocese to ensure that the guidelines have been met?

Answer 2

There are many problems with this question.

1. Yes, you do read a lot about wayward priests. However, just because you get a constant stream of new priests that have done improper things doesn't mean that there are a lot of them out there.

Example: Catholics make up about 1/9 of the entire world's population or 1 billion people. If the average parish has say 10,000 people (a very high estimate) and only one priests (many have two or three), that's 100,000 priests. You've heard of lets say 30. That's 0.03 percent of the priest population. There's more rat feces in your average reteraunt's food than that, and everyone still eats at resteraunts. Basically, you are buying into the fear mongering that the media loves to dabble in nowadays.

2. Catholics are aware of this behavior and are jsut as upset as everyone else. Some have the left the Church over this (not the appropriate response in my opinion), others have left the faith all together. But the majority of us simply become more informed about our priests and send letters to the Vatican and work on making changes.

America has one of the largest prison populations in the world. Does this mean that the entire country has turned a blind eye towards crime? No, it just takes time to institute changes.

And let's not forget that this is not just a Catholic problem. This is going on in every faith and in every denomination. The press likes to pick on the Church because of its constancy in the face of modern fads. They seem old and out-of-date for holding onto their values and this confuses many modern people.

Just yesterday they captured Warren Jeffs who was marrying young teen girls to old men.

Answer 3

Well - you have to ask yourself if it's a problem with the Catholic religion per se, or with the people who become priests.

I find it odd that the Bible says that it is not good for man to be alone, and yet there's an insistence on celibacy for priests. I wonder how many priests are having consensual sex (ie with an ADULT) and yet we never hear about it.

I think God has made it pretty celar that although SOME are called to be celibate and unmarried, that certainly doesn't apply to people for the most part.

Answer 4

Everyday in the paper I read about another protestant pastor or youth leader or school teacher or coach who have had their way with innocent children. Its not just a Catholic problem it is common throughout society. Baptists do it, Methodists do it, teachers and coaches are probably the most numerous offenders. No ones eyes are closed to it. There just isn't a reliable predictive indicator to prevent it yet. It is foul behavior in any form and I don't feel these people should ever walk free again but the sentences are almost always very mild.

Answer 5

Catholics have not closed their eyes to the Clergy Sex Scandal. It's just that most Catholics aren't going to bail out on the Church on account of the sinful actions of 6% of it's priests.

Catholics have no illusions. We don't expect our clergy to be perfect. They are not above sin any more than lay Catholics are.

There has never been an age when Catholic Clergy were sinless. However, there has never been an age when the Catholic Clergy went without it's saints either.

Jesus came to call the sinner, not the righteous. Of course, none of us are righteous in and of ourselves. We become Catholics in the hopes of becoming more Christ-like. Those who hold true to the Doctrine of the Faith will indeed become more Christ-like. Those who don't - and this category can indeed include clergy - will not become more Christ-like.

All Catholics advance themselves on account of their own Spritual merits, not the merits of their clergy.

At times like this it might be well to remember that, in the interest of being more Christ-like, we must forgive sinners before we ourselves can seek forgiveness from God.

Answer 6

I think this is a case where the "sins of a few are visited upon the many" The laity of the Catholic Church should not be responsible for the criminal acts of their leadership. While "priestly pedophilia" is an extremely serious problem, the bad rep the Catholic Church has gotten is because of all the years that the hierarchy of the church not only looked the other way but actually covered it up. That is inexcusable. Since pedophelia is against the law, to hide their crimes and merely slap the offenders on the wrist and then relocate them where they could, and, in the majority of cases, did continue to molest children is, to me, as criminal as the act itself. I believe, anyone, regardless of their stature in the church, who participated in the innumerable cover-ups and transfers should be held to the same standard of law that anyone else would be subjected to if they helped a pedophile continue to molest innocent children. It is a long established fact that the "cure rate" for pedophilia is 0 % !ZERO ! ! How could the church not know that ."Go and sin no more" just doesn't work here!

Catholics shouldn't be questioning their faith . . .they should be questioning their leaders.

Answer 7

It would be wise for you to do some research on Pedophilia among minsters. You will find that there are far more cases of Pedophilia among Protestant Minsters than Catholic Priest. The Catholic Church has less than one percent of the Priest that have committed any type of sex crime. The celibacy vow makes the Catholic Priest a target for people like you that are uninformed and like to dump on the Catholic Church. The abuse of one child is a terrible crime against humanity and God. The only thing that possibly could have been worst was when some of our Bishops tried to cover up the crime maintaining they were trying to protect the Church. God will protect the Church! The people are the Church and when they did not report these crimes immediately to the proper legal authorities they were neglecting their responsibility to protect the people God entrusted to them which make up the Church.

Answer 8

Another Catholic basher that only reads what Media prints.
Being Catholic it pains me when I hear what transpired behind our backs for so many years. Many of us believe that these INDIVIDUALS should be under the jails, but it has nothing to do with our faith.
I personally believe that the devil is always trying to hurt God where he is the strongest, and by using his minions to do his evil work he attempts to achieves this.
I believe we should expose all priest that have a history of pedophilia, and let the law of the land try them. Till our leaders decide to take responsibility, and fight evil, and this act is of the most vile, non-Catholics will always believe that the majority of us condone this. NOT TRUE!!!

Answer 9

You say 'so many pedophile priests'- the numbers on their own seem like a lot, but represent a small percentage of the total number. The vast majority are not child abusers. However, the fact that they covered it up for so long should be a source of shame.

Answer 10

Ok, I'm going to aswer this as delicately as possible. Priests are human, and as ahuman beings, they have needs (sexually). It is not right to squash their natural desires and pretend they don't exist. Therefore, many priests go for the easiest prey (children), and act out with them. That is my opinion.