Comments on: Why do priests have so many sexual scandals?

By: Mel

Mel — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:11:59 +0000

I believe priest has so many scandals because they try to hold back their sexual, desires when they become priest. The problem ism that the bible never said a priest should npot get married. Moses brother was a priest and he was a true born again christian man. They cannot hold back their desires so they attack boys and what ever. The bible says, it is better to marry, than to burn.
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By: injanier

injanier — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:36:59 +0000

The vow of celibacy attracts young men with sexual issues, who think taking the vow will solve their problems. The Church traditionally dealt with the problem by pretending it didn't exist and moving priests to different parishes if anyone complained.
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By: The Dark Side

The Dark Side — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:30:59 +0000

It just gets more public when they do it precisely because they are priests and are expected to behave in a more holy way.

I’m sure though that the catholic insistence on priests being celibate doesn’t help. Very few people have the "gift" to be completely asexual and I can well imagine that enforced celibacy only leads to sexual frustration. Churches which allow their ministers or priests to be married seem to have a significantly smaller problem. On a slightly different tack, referring to the second of those links, there is certainly a high proportion of homosexuals amongst priests, possibly higher than in the population generally. I’ve heard of seminaries in the USA that are virtually run by a "gay mafia". Why this should be is an interesting question – as a homosexual myself I could guess that a liking for dressing up and ceremony might have something to do with it.

One good question is why, so often, are these scandals about paedophilia? I just wonder, and this is pure speculation, if it’s because children are more likely to keep quiet about it and priests are in a position of trust that makes it easier to get a child on their own with them.
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By: he1ididog

he1ididog — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:00:59 +0000

Pray for the Catholic Church. It is not about sex (they could have slept with women), it is about Pedophilia. We live in a sexually perverse culture. The priesthood allowed access to a lot of people, particularly children. Pedophiles enter professions where they have easy access to victims. Church leadership too often treated child sexual abuse as a sin (it is a SIN), instead of a serious crime. They would move the clergy around in the hopes that a fresh start would cure them. Pedophilia cannot be cured! The priests would abuse at the new parish and the cycle continued on and on. The crisis could have been avoided, if one parent had gone to the police and refused a pay off. Now, the church is being shamed and besmirched because of a few VERY SICK individuals!
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By: Solas5

Solas5 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:15:59 +0000

First, they are not Christians. (Most Catholics aren’t.) They have never repented and put their faith and trust in Christ.

Also, the RCC is a great place for sexual perversion of all types, as they are very secretive.

They need to be prayed for, that they come to receive Christ’s gift of salvation, stop trying to work their way to Heaven, and turn their sexual perversions over to God.
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By: Press Your Luck

Press Your Luck — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:38:59 +0000

Since the Catholic church is the largest denomination, the media pays more attention to it then any other branch of Christianity. Whenever non-Catholic Christian leaders are involved in a scandal, you're not as likely to hear about it. Surely everyone must have heard at some point in time about what Ted Haggard did. With the media, its all about the ratings and what will sell. You might say that this is anti-Catholic propaganda. Also, like others have mentioned, sexual desire can be strong enough to cause people to do horrible things. Does it justify what people do? No, but keep in mind that religious leaders are humans too, thus they make mistakes. Not a single human being on Earth is perfect.
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By: ridiculously smart person

ridiculously smart person — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:00:59 +0000

bc the catholic priests can not wed and the human body craves sexual attention so some go a little crazy.
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By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:50:59 +0000

sex is one of the strongest natural urges we have. too many religions attempt to repress that urge. you can't cage up such a thing without it busting itself out in unpleasant forms.
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By: imrod

imrod — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:08:59 +0000

I think the actual statistics would be interesting to see, priests vs general population.
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By: Eye of Mars

Eye of Mars — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:48:59 +0000

Not sure how the ratio stands up (whether a higher percentage of priests commit sex crimes in comparison to the general population), but I'd imagine that vow of celibacy probably is a factor.
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