Vatican refutes church child sex abuse scandal from celibacy requirement

Church child sex abuse scandal results not from celibacy requirement? At least Vatican newspaper think so. Vatican defends the Pope Benedict XVI‘s settlement of the religion crisis. It even safeguards the Catholic church credit in Europe. But why?

Pope Benedict XVI Refutes Church Child Sex Abuse Scandal

Vatican Newspaper Protects Pope, Denies church child sex abuse scandal from celibacy requirement

Celibacy requirement is probably not at the root of most the sexual abuse scandal, because anyone given to that kind of behavior, would probably do it anyway. But the church is wrong if they think celibacy has no point in the matter. Holy or not, even priest’s have to get their fu*king nuts off once in a while!

There is no link between earth quakes and the end of the world but you stupid bible thumpers are ready for the end everytime the ground shakes.

The fact that the Vatican isn’t accepting responsibility for the Deviant Priests, what made them DOCTORS, issuing proclamations on sexual behaviour? Does ANYONE blindly follow these guys any longer ?

Yeah, right! When you have priests counselling married couples and it does involve sexual problems you’ll never convince me that it’s not on their mind.

The Vatican on Sunday rejected the notion that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe and again defended the pope’s handling of the crisis.

Suggestions that the celibacy rule was in part responsible for the “deviant behavior” of sexually abusive priests have swirled in recent days, with opinion pieces in German newspapers blaming it for fueling abuse and even Italian commentators questioning the rule.

Much of the furor was spurred by comments from one of the pope’s closest advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who called this week for an honest examination of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of sex abuse.

“Part of it is the question of celibacy, as well as the subject of character development. And part of it is a large portion of honesty, in the church but also in society,” he wrote in the online edition of his diocesan newsletter.

His office quickly stressed that Schoenborn wasn’t calling into question priestly celibacy, which Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed as recently as Friday as an “expression of the gift of oneself to God and others.”

But Schoenborn has in the past shown himself receptive to arguments that a celibate priesthood is increasingly problematic for the church, primarily because it limits the number of men who seek ordination.

Last June, Schoenborn personally presented the Vatican with a lay initiative signed by prominent Austrian Catholics calling for the celibacy rule to be abolished and for married men to be allowed to become priests.

In the days following Schoenborn’s editorial this week, several prominent prelates in Germany and at the Vatican shot down any suggestion that the celibacy rule had anything to do with the scandal, a point echoed Sunday by the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“It’s been established that there’s no link,” said the article by Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi, an emeritus professor of canon law and psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

“First off, it’s known that sexual abuse of minors is more widespread among lay people and those who are married than in the celibate priesthood,” he wrote. “Secondly, research has shown that priests guilty of abuse had long before stopped observing celibacy.”

A report endorsed in 2004 by the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference, however, argued that an understanding of the problem of clerical sex abuse isn’t possible without reference to both celibacy and homosexuality, since the vast majority of U.S. abuse cases were of a homosexual nature.

While stressing neither celibacy nor homosexuality causes abuse, the report said “The church did an inadequate job both of screening out those individuals who were destined to fail in meeting the demands of the priesthood, and of forming others to meet those demands, including the rigors of a celibate life.”

In its article on the scandal, L’Osservatore also staunchly defended Benedict’s handling of the crisis. The article — subtitled “The rigor of Benedict against the filth in the church” — called the pope a “vigilant shepherd of his flock” for having confronted the crisis decisively early on and taken charge of abuse cases himself as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican has been on the defensive ever since the first of some 170 former students from Catholic schools in Benedict’s native Germany came forward with claims of physical and sexual abuse, including at a boys choir once led by the pope’s brother.

Since then, claims have spread to the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland — all while the pope was preparing a letter for Irish Catholics in response to the decades of systematic abuse in church-run schools, orphanages and other institutions in that predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

On Sunday, the Muenster Diocese in Germany reported that a priest, Rev. Klaus Evers, had been defrocked at his own request after he recalled an instance of past abuse — a memory triggered as a result of the current debate in the church.

The crisis reached the pope himself on Friday. The Munich archdiocese reported that when he was Munich Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, he had approved therapy for a priest suspected of abuse in the 1980s. The priest was then transferred to another location, where he was convicted of abusing minors.

The Vatican and the archdiocese stressed that Ratzinger didn’t authorize the transfer and that an underling had taken “full responsibility.”

Benedict didn’t refer to the scandal Sunday during his traditional noon blessing. He spoke in general terms about the parable of the prodigal son and assured the faithful — in German — that God loves everyone “even when they feel estranged” and that God created forgiveness.

But the scandal has clearly shaken the Vatican, and it has responded by going on a full-court media offensive to stem the damage. In an extraordinary move, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor for sex crimes, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, detailed for the first time statistics on the number and types of cases of abuse that had been reviewed since the Vatican in 2001 ordered diocese to forward cases of suspected abusive priests to Rome to determine whether church trials were warranted.

The Vatican has said such church trials, while secret, in no way precluded bishops from reporting abuse to civil authorities.

In the interview Saturday with the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, Scicluna suggested that the statute of limitations for church tribunals be removed altogether for such crimes. Currently the statute is 10 years after the alleged victim reaches age 18.

“Practice has shown that the limit of 10 years is not enough in this kind of case,” he said, noting that the Vatican in 2002 allowed exceptions to the statute on a case-by-case basis, and that such exemptions are generally granted.

His deepest emotional relationships were with younger men who were his disciples. The most significant of these were Richard Hurrell Froude, who died in 1836, and Ambrose St John who lived with Newman as companion from 1843 for 32 years.

Ambrose St John preceded Newman into the Roman Catholic Church and became a member of the Birmingham Oratory, where he lived until his death in 1875. Newman was profoundly affected by the loss of these friends, and wrote after the death of Ambrose St John in 1875: “I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband’s or a wife’s, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one’s sorrow greater, than mine.”

At his own request, Newman was buried in the same grave as Ambrose St John. He had stated on three occasions his desire to be buried with his friend, including shortly before his death in 1890: “I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John’s grave � and I give this as my last, my imperative will”, he wrote, later adding: “This I confirm and insist on.”

Ours is a Catholic family, and we firmly believe that the Church’s insistence on celibacy is archaic and long overdue for removal.

First and foremost, the ban against married priests had to do with inheritance and property and had nothing to do initially with the teachings of Christ – who as a Jew would not have held out for celibacy anyway. As a friend of mine once said “We Jews are a lusty race”.

Married priests had children and money and property would be left to the children and not to the church so the prohibition against married priests was a financial and not a religious consideration.

Why isn’t the government investigating the US-arm of the Catholic church under RICO statutes? They were willing to invade religious communities in Texas and Utah to ‘protect the children’.

“Bishop Spong said that seeing St. Paul as a homosexual has helped him understand the apostle’s anguished cries (“Wretched man that I am!”), his apparent hostility toward women (“wives submit to your husbands”) and the fact that he never married.”

The war that went on between what he desired with his mind and what he desired with his body, his drivenness to a legalistic religion of control, his fear when that system was threatened, his attitude toward women, his refusal to seek marriage as an outlet for his passion — nothing else accounts for this data as well as the possibility that Paul was gay.” A man of Paul’s time would have been married, he wasn’t.

Just love how the wacko’s on the blog “quote” the mystical preaching of this snake oil enterprise.

Everyday I wake up wondering how it’s possible human beings can be so stupid!?!

Me 3:6, 7-13 People are to immediately stop being so brain washed!

Fat chance in my life time – maybe in just a few more decades as the numbers of catholics are dwindling.

Another confusion is the notion that celibacy is unbiblical, or even “unnatural.” Every man, it is claimed, must obey the biblical injunction to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28); and Paul commands that “each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:2). It is even argued that celibacy somehow “causes,” or at least correlates with higher incidence of, illicit sexual behavior or perversion.

All of this is false. Although most people are at some point in their lives called to the married state, the vocation of celibacy is explicitly advocated, as well as practiced, by both Jesus and Paul.

So far from “commanding” marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, in that very chapter Paul actually endorses celibacy for those capable of it: “To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion” (7:8-9).

It is only because of this “temptation to immorality” (7:2) that Paul gives the teaching about each man and woman having a spouse and giving each other their “conjugal rights” (7:3); he specifically clarifies, “I say this by way of concession, not of command. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (7:6-7).

The band of priests denying the obvious. While it may be preferable for a church leader to be unmarried it is silly to think that somehow being a priest makes any young person any less interested in sex. So a dark conspiracy of silence permeates the whole Catholic community involving all the people in the congregation. The cop, the judge, the criminal all must co-operate to avoid scandal. Therefore the whole community becomes sleazy and tainted.

The Catholic church will never accept blame for crimes commited let alone the attrocities inflicted during the middle-ages in the name of God.Never been a better argument for the separation of church and state than the actions of so-called people of God

B.S that is exactly what causes this, people have urges plain and simple let them have sex and get married and this would not happen “as much” im not naive it will still happen.

WHAT IS THE REASON!!! Please Enlighten Us!!! Zero Morals…Zero Ethics.. Devil Worship? The Vatican knows for SURE what “isn’t” the reason for this sick,sub-human, evil behavior! They are coming up a little bit short on assuring Catholics that the Vatican either cares, or is going to really hold All involve accountable. sad…very sad & pathetic!

If the whole truth about the Catholic Church was ever brought out into the light, the Vatican would be turned into a parking lot.

The catholic church is full of GAY priests…Gay men have been hiding for years as priests…I knew one who finally decided to quit and come out of his church closet…What makes me mad is I still have family members that turn a blind eye to it…They are getting old and their time is running out, it’s sad that they will be going to Hell…

They obviously spend WAYYY too much time with their heads up their collective butts. Sexuality is human nature. Just because someone tries to be celibate does NOT mean those urges are going to go away. How else can they explain it?

Oh, wait–I know, everyone else is lying because they want to make God look bad, or they want to undermine religion in society. Well, too late fellas, you did that all by your-child-molesting-protecting-the-offenders-se lves

I for one, love God, but that doesnt mean I am Christian enough to forgive or protect the perverts.

Celibacy does not encourage or promote sexual abuse of children.
The vast majority of child abusers/pedophiles are MARRIED. We have way too many rocking chair Psychiatrists on these posts! Simply put, these people are sick, and they make up about 1% of the entire male population.
Child abuse exists in a lot of different churches and a lot of different organizations. A study conducted a few years ago concluded that a child is 100 times more likely to be sexually abused by a teacher than the family priest. It makes much better “headlines” when it involves the Catholic Church.
The big problem here is the cover-up. These deviants need to be reported to the local law enforcement, not handled by the organization internally. I know that all church organizations and all groups working with children for about the past twenty years or so, have mandated special training and screening to try to prevent these problems.

How could allowing priests to marry solve a homosexuality problem? What possible thought path could come to that conclusion? 80% of the abuse cases in the US are men and 14-16 year old boys. Marriage will not cure that.

The cause of this problem was the Church being open to providing a meaninful vocation for homosexuals. It has tragically backfired. Let this be a warning to the Boy Scouts and military. If you allow homosexuals into your ranks, it will be your organization facing the scandals in 50 years. IF you preach the truth.

I will not give up on Jesus because of Judas.

More evil and murders have been committed in the name of God than for any other excuse. Until humanity grows up and comes to terms with the reality that we are responsible for our own well being the cowardly minds that succumb to the manipulations (primarily through fear) of the murky coalitions of pols and clerics we will prevail and we continue to thrash around, beig jerked from one side to the other, while futilely trying trying to avoid all responsibility for our selves. Only the cowardly mind cannot deal with the thought of nothingness and need to posit god to relieve the anxiety, and until that changes we will struggle in the mire. It takes strength and courage to accept the existence of a meaningless universe and a meaningless world. All meaning is imputed upon our lives by ourselves.

The Vatican lies. They are penis obsessed, say that one must have a penis to communicate directly to God, that penis-less women can’t be priests because they don’t have souls “adequate enough” to communicate directly to God. The conservative religious value system is about genitalia-based so-called “morals”. See their “Family Values” issues: Homosexuality (male genitalia may not touch.) Abortion (only males may decide what women may do with their uteruses and women should “suffer” childbirth for having sex.) Censorship / fines for people LOOKING at images of genitals (porn). “Purity”, intact hymens, virginity and “unopened goods”). Abstinence / Anti-sex education. Who may marry/legitimization of children and breed bloodlines. It all comes from the animal husbandry of humans as livestock done by the Church, lords and masters before legal protections for our human rights.

That’s funny! One of the reasons the church harbors illegals is that the parents can’t report the abuse of their children to the police. They may get arrested & deported for their efforts.

the catlicker church instituted celibacy out of greed to keep from having to support a priests wife and kids and was willing to have them bugger choirboys and cover up for it for the money.

Paedophiles R Us: “We do child sex, but other religions do it too” – Roman Catholic Archbishop

The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic church was “busy cleaning its own house” and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger. God created women to be at mans side,even Catholic priests.

Sex is a normal part of being human as it is for any living thing that procreates. It is why churches sanction it for couples. So why is it not proper for Priests to marry and have a normal life as opposed to being celebate creating urges in an abnormal manner? It also increases anger and frustration which has definitely been taken out on children in their care. Until they realize the dangers they have put children and anyone in their charge, it will not change. Now with widespread attention to their crimes, It may even become dangerous. There is nothing that I’ve found in the teachings of the bible that demand celibacy when carrying out the work to which they supposedly dedicate their lives in service to God and Christ.