Is celibacy the reason behind some priests molesting kids?

Answer 1

I believe you have a point. In other religions, clerics are allowed to marry and have sex. It is totally unreasonable that a person can live his/her life under the stresses of forced celibacy.

I think the normal, healthy sexual drive becomes perverted when denied. These molesters are victims of unreasonable demands. Not to say that their choices are acceptable, certainly not! But I believe that if the church would change its stance on celibacy, the problem of child molestation in the church would just about disapear.

Answer 2

I believe it's got everything to do with it. Most priests are drawn for very genuine reasons into the priesthood pretty early in their lives. They are young men, and those powerful flowing hormones don't care about what vows of celibacy you may have taken. Mother Nature demands that animals (including us) obey the procreative urge, which is important to survival of the species.
However, early on in their training, and later indoctrination into the Priesthood, they are also full of religious, idealistic enthusiasm, and all of the emotions that attracted them to become a priest in the first place. It is an intense period of training, and mental adjustment, and the new young priest is so absorbed in all of that, it's possible to repress all other emotions. I think this is why we never have heard about any newly initiated young priest being accused of this kind of behaviour. It is always a little later on, when they have been established priests for maybe ten or more years, that the long suppressed sexual feelings begin to find their way to the surface. I don't believe these priests are truly homosexual. It's rather that these choir boys, and the kids of parishoners are so accessible. It isn't going to "look suspicious" for a priest to be around them constantly. :Plus, they focus on the boys because it would get a little more attention if a male priest seemed to be hanging out too much with little girls.
These priests are caught between a rock and a hard place. They still very much want to do the work of the Priesthood, but this mandatory sexual repression is totally messing with their minds at the same time.
The celibacy thing wasn't always a requirement for priests. It began at a time when it had become quite common for wealthy catholic families to dedicate one of its sons to the priesthood. That man was in line to inherit some serious money some day. If he picked up a wife along the way, and had a few children, they would inherit everything upon his death. But, if he had no heirs, who else would he be more inclined to leave his estate to, than the Church? One thing the Church couldn't do,obviously, was make one rule for the sons of wealthy families, and another set of rules for everyone else.The solution to that was to introduce Celibacy as the "standing order" for all men who from that time on wished to enter the Priesthood. No doubt in my mind that this psychological conflict began there, and has gone on continuously ever since. We just are getting to know about it all in recent times, because the Church lost its power to hide it.

Answer 3

NO. There was a time when the priesthood was arefuge for epople that had what society at the time considered to be deviant thoughts. There was an erroneous beleif that somehow becoming a priest and becoming celibate would teach them how to suppress those urges. All it did was give them access to an almost unlimited supply of peolpe upon whom to visit their lusts. Whether these people were priests or not, they would still have gone after children...the priesthood simply gave them a ready supply....and since, fro many years no one would have believed any such accusations from a child... they had free reign. Even now children are reluctant to report the abuse...believe me as much as I would like to blame the practices of the church for causing the behaviour...that isn't the case...it is only another sympton of something that, until someone make an honest effort to understand...nothing can be done to counteract it...

Answer 4

No. Celibacy is not the reason some priests molest kids. There evidently is an evil predisposition they have and so use the priesthood for ready access to their targets.

There are far more good and wonderful priests than evil ones. At great sacrifice they serve their parishes.

By the way, I'm not RCC. I'm a married Protestant.

Answer 5

I have to say it may be part of it,but I think there is also a greater sickness at work there as well. It is not natural for a man or woman to remain celibate for their lifetime,in fact by nature it's not really normal to make it all the way through puberty celibate,but that's an argument for another day. The sexual drive is only surpassed by the drive for base survival,food water etc. And to deny it when it is eating away at you every day has to be rough,and it seems that once a man like that finally gave in it would be easy for his sexual desires to take some pretty dark turns,not to mention just availability. After all the evidence shows most of these children will never tell,for every one we have heard of there are probably 3 more out there,which is supported by rape stats as well for anyone who doubts that idea. And so it's safe,he gets what he wants,sates his desires,and can also continue to live his life as a priest with no one the wiser in 75% of cases.Seems perfectly rational to me.

AD

Answer 6

No. Psychology and the inability to control themselves is what's behind some priests molesting kids.

Answer 7

It probably is a factor. However, even without the celibacy, that position would attract anybody wanting to work with kids.

Answer 8

We are perhaps about to find out as the Catholic Church continues (closed) dialog about allowing some priests to marry...

My guess is that a cloistered life in the church, without access to human affection attracts people who don't know how to deal appropriately with human interaction in the first place, and a side-effect is sexual attraction to helpless beings (children)

Answer 9

I think so, people always want what they cant have and celibacy is only taught until marriage. When you forbid one to marry you are going against the scriptures.

Answer 10

did you recognize that over 0.5 of the accusations are proved fake? the information would not record the undeniable fact that almost all of them are proved harmless. yet another factor is that the protestant denominations have a stronger share of offenses than the Catholic church. you could not bypass around asserting an entire group of people is undesirable using blunders of the few.