my oh my...where do i start?
Firstly, I can't believe the ignorance of most of the posts I have read in these 7 pages....
Secondly, I would like to turn your attention to Professor Philip Jenkins (a non-Catholic)
Prof. Philip Jenkins, a non-Catholic and Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University, published the book Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis in 1996. In it, he calculated that approximately 0.2 percent of Catholic priests are child molesters. His 2002 article "The myth of the 'pedophile priest'" expresses his views. Professor Jenkins states:
"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 nonclergy.
However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported."
Furthermore, there remains the simple fact that a Catholic priest suffering sexual temptations is not likely to turn immediately to a teenage boy simply because Church discipline does not permit clergy to marry. Supporters of clerical celibacy suggest, then, that there is some other factor at work.
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Some —including non-Catholic academics such as Philip Jenkins—have observed that the Catholic Church is being unfairly singled out by a secular media which they say fails to highlight similar sexual scandals in other religious groups, such as the Anglican Communion, various Protestant churches, and the Jewish and Islamic communities.
In particular the Catholic Church may have a lower incidence of molesting priests than Churches that allow married clergy. Statistically child molestation occurs within families but Catholic priests do not have families. Similarly, the term "pedophile priests," widely used in the media, implies a distinctly higher rate of child molesters within the Roman Catholic priesthood when in reality the incidence is lower than most other segments of society".
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The Catholic Church clearly teaches the sexual abuse of children to be gravely sinful. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church's list of moral offences, one finds:
"...any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it, all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing." (CCC 2389).
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btw celibacy comes from Jesus himself:
Paul was not the first apostle to conclude that celibacy is, in some sense, "better" than marriage. After Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19 on divorce and remarriage, the disciples exclaimed, "If such is the case between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry" (Matt 19:10). This remark prompted Jesus’ teaching on the value of celibacy "for the sake of the kingdom":
"Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom it is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it" (Matt. 19:11–12).
Finally this refutes the arguments against priestly celibacy:
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/facts/fm0014.html
