I wrote what I thought was a great blog, based on something I published twelve years ago. And at the last minute, to bolster my case, I thought I’d throw in a few scientific facts, well-researched data that would prove just how clever my reasoning was.
Boy was I wrong. This article in Psychology Today is well written and puts the whole thing in perspective.
I’m happy to say that the Roman Catholic Church no longer has a pedophilia problem, and in truth, although it did indeed have a problem, it was no worse than other occupations the put men in contact with adolescent children. In fact, Roman Catholic Priests have a lower rate of credible accusations than the general population of male schoolteachers.
Which made my whole thesis, that celibacy contributed to pedophilia or perhaps attracted pedophiles, more-or-less invalid.
There are two problem, of course. First, any amount of child molestation is absolutely unacceptable. And second, the Roman Catholic Church sets itself up as the beacon of morality, with the Pope himself having a direct line to God and his priests sworn to uphold morality and help the laity conform to those morals. For these purported paragons of virtue to then commit these terrible crimes is particularly offensive.
But that doesn’t change the fact that I was wrong. Below, just because I spent time on it and a lot of the points are still valid, is my original blog. In particular, I still stand by my opinion that celibacy is unnatural and unhealthy. It’s cruel, and can only harm the Church by driving away men from the priesthood who might otherwise make excellent clergy, and whose life experiences (i.e. marriage, intimacy, children) would improve their understanding of real-life problems.
So here, without further ado, is my original piece.
Why do Catholic Priests Molest Children?
Why do they do it? I have a theory.
Yet another Catholic-priests-sex-with-children scandal is in the news. Not one or two cases, but 400 lawsuits against the archdiocese of San Diego, and it looks like bankruptcy is in the future of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that all of these abuses took place decades ago and were only filed recently because the State of California extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. The Diocese claims (and I tend to believe them for once) that this demonstrates an effective (but way, way overdue) campaign to root out these pedophiles, and to change the Church’s attitudes and responses.
So again, why did so many priests molest children? I think it’s pretty obvious: of all the sexual acts known to humans, celibacy is the most unnatural. Requiring priests to be celibate sets up an impossible dissonance in a healthy man.
Let’s start with the basics. Did you know that only two percent of Catholic Priests keep their vow of celibacy?
“Survey and statistics show that only two percent of priests have been absolutely faithful to their vows of celibacy. Adjustment problems abound as demonstrated by repeated reports of priests abandoning their callings, fathering children, being charged with child molestation.”
This is from a thesis written forty years ago, back in 1992, entitled Celibacy Is the Issue by Thomas G. Lederer. Although this was decades ago, there’s no reason to suspect that human sexual nature has changed. Lederer explains and predicts the current crisis of pedophilia in the Catholic Church.
Here are a couple interesting quotes.
“In late 1990, A.W. Richard Sipe’s book, A Secret World – Sexuality and the Search for Celibacy, caused a veritable flood of controversy. The author … stated that that at least half the U.S. Priests at any given time are involved in some pattern of sexual activity.”
“Many priests see the Papacy as dysfunctional and many of the bishops as co-dependent. This cannot be taken as a shocking or startling statement. … Rome’s attitudes and practices relating to women, sexuality, and authority are not in harmony with the mind of the universal Church. They have only the flimsiest historical and theological justifications, and they fly in the face of political, social, and economic realities.”
– Father Joseph Breen, Pastor of St. Edward’s Catholic Church, Nashville, Tennessee, June 2, 1992
In Lederer’s thesis, I learned that the celibacy requirement only reached its current form recently. Resolutions to require celibacy were rejected in 395 AD and 692 AD, and it wasn’t until around 1192 that the Roman Catholic Church banned marriage of its priests. Even then, sex wasn’t banned; the priests’ wives became concubines, and the Church claimed all of the priests’ wealth.
In other words, the celibacy requirement was originally about politics and wealth, not morality! What’s even more interesting is that celibacy is a “calling,” not a law from God. The Pope can rescind the requirement at any time.
It wasn’t until around the mid sixteenth century that policies regarding celibacy took their modern form.
Even more amazing is that Lederer shows why the Vatican has consistently ignored warnings, historical lessons, and even theological arguments that advocate abandoning celibacy. It’s an excellent thesis, though a bit long. I urge anyone with a sincere interest in this topic to read it.
Every day it seems there is another news report or TV story about the Roman Catholic Church’s pedophile priest scandal. Time after time, I’m amazed that the reporters ignore the huge elephant in the room: celibacy for priests. As Lederer says, “celibacy is the issue.” Without it, there would be no pedophilia scandal and the Roman Catholic Church would be a far better institution.
Celibacy has been touted as a virtuous accomplishment. It’s not — it’s a form of emotional torture.
In fact, it’s a perversion of nature, the most unnatural of all sex acts. We are animals, and sex is the single most important instinct nature has given us. Sex is the strongest of all of our instincts; it’s impossible to be human without embracing our sexuality. True happiness and contentment are the rewards of a strong, loving sexual relationship.
Hunger is easy for us to understand. When people are starving, their morals quickly evaporate and they take to stealing, fighting, and engaging in food riots. Our bodies tell our brains that we’re in trouble, that we’ll die if we don’t get food soon, and the primitive part of our brains turn loose our most primitive emotions.
When the Roman Catholic Church demands that its priests forgo sex, the result is as predictable as starving: morals quickly evaporate. Without sex, the priests’ primitive brains convince them that immoral behavior – anything that will get sex – is OK.
Celibacy is the issue, and it’s long past time for the Roman Catholic Church to abandon this unnatural and unhealthy requirement.
Painting: Unnamed, Luis Vargas Santa Cruz, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Modifications by the author under the same license.
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