Pope Benedict is Living in Denial

He came, he spoke, he conquered.

Pope Benedict XVI is back in Rome, after his razzle-dazzle visit to the United States -- where he impressed everybody with his apologetic comments about the priest pedophile scandal.

Well, ALMOST everybody. He didn't impress me, because -- even though, for the first time, he expressed regret at the way the Church tried for so long to cover up the scandal -- he still refuses to recognize what lies at the heart of the problem.

As long as the Catholic Church insists on only ordaining men as priests -- and only accepting celibate men as priests -- its sex scandals are never going away.

There's nothing in Scripture or in the teachings of Jesus to support a male-only, celibate clergy. Those rules were added much later by misogynist, sexually-screwed up theologians.

After all, some of the closest and most loyal followers of Jesus were women. And most of the Apostles, including St. Peter, were married men.

Look at ministers, rabbis, or Orthodox priests. There's no doubt a member of the clergy can marry and still function as a priest.

If Benedict is really serious about fixing the Church's sex scandal problems, he will let priests get married. Then they won't be so likely to prey on little boys.

Comments

[unitron]

Bill, as far as the church is concerned men who become priests "marry" the church, which is why the men running the church here in the states saw the sexual assault problem in terms of the priests being unfaithful to the vows made to the church, and why the Pope talked about the pain and suffering caused "to the Church", even though the networks doctored his remarks to make it seem as though he was talking about pain and suffering "of the victims".

[werbenjagermanjensen]

I don't think vows of celibacy are the problem here. Buddhist monks are also required to be celibate and as far as I know there hasn't been a pedophile monk scandal. It's not even the fact that there are pedophiles among the Catholic clergy, as I tend to doubt there are statistically any more in the priesthood than there are in any other profession that gives adult males privileged access to potentially vulnerable children (teachers, athletic coaches, scout leaders, etc.) The problem has been the widespread practice among church administrators to enable known sexual predators among the clergy to victimize children again and again by hushing up their crimes and allowing them continued access to children, the classic move being to deal with a potential uproar in one parish that has been victimized by a child abuser by transferring him to a new parish full of fresh, unknowing victims.

A growing body of evidence proves that pedophiles can't be cured of their destructive sexual urges, so doesn't it make sense to say to them, "I'm sorry, you may be a wonderful man but you can't be trusted around children to save your life, so we're going to make you live and work somewhere where you won't be able to get near them"? Wouldn't sending a pedophile priest off to live in a cloister be a better solution than to kick him out of the priesthood and send him out into the secular community to prey at will?

[aceholiday]

who cares what the popes doing. he's the master to the slave? he's no more important than you or me.

[Thorn]

"Pop" Benedict? I don't get it.

[BeeOplentee]

Priests, being human, have the same sexual drives as any man. These drives cannot be talked or rationalized away, because the urges are deeply ingrained in the most ancient part of the brain which is the "id".

Celibacy is more apt to cause pederasty and/or drunkeness than spiritual peace.

[Macready]

great blog . . . totally agree . . . Catholic clergy should be allowed to marry . . . there should be no discrimination between male and female clergy and Christianity really has to take its Mithradic roots seriously . . . so much of the Cristian myth is comprised of other pagan religions thriving at the time of its birth that it is difficult not to see Christianity as just a redressed from of popular pagan relgions of the time

[bourbonball72]

So Bill, since the inference here is that non married men will molest children, just want to ask how many kids you molested before you got married. Your argument--Catholic priests are unmarried men, unmarried men molest children because they don't have women, therefore (only) Catholic Priests molest children. I am pretty sure your logic here is flawed, obviously not a product of a Catholic education...I guess you blame the Pope and the Church for that too? Maybe you'll want to check first before you shoot from the lip and try to hit someone who is way beyond you in terms of a developed understanding of a two thousand year old system.

[Clinton]

Only someone nearly devoid of reason (perhaps someone 'educated' in Catholic schools) would make such an inference based upon what Press actually wrote. We all know that other people, in addition to some Catholic priests, have molested children. What is despicable (though not at all surprising, from an historical point of view) is the sheer crassness displayed by the church toward the victims of this outrageous behavior. As for the Pope, it really does the church no further good to have ex Hitler youth in such a visible position, but then this must be yet another case of credo quia absurdum. On a more practical note, you can bet your sanctimonious soul that my child will never get within shouting distance of a catholic priest while I have anything to say about it.

[paixa3]

Why would any church want to read the words of Jesus and heed them?????

Actually, this clearly is THE PROBLEM. All churches read between the lines of Jesus to set their own agenda.

That is why I do not go to any of them, but believe that Jesus was real and was one hell of a reformer, in a good way.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Pop Benedict's job is to convince other people to live in denial about the impossibility of the dead rising while separating the flock from their money.

[Quaoar]

"As long as the Catholic Church insists on only ordaining men as priests - and only accepting celibate men as priests - its sex scandals are never going away."

So women and married men don't get involved with sex scandals? You haven't been paying much attention to the news, Bill.

Eliot Spitzer - Married, Larry Craig - Married, Ted Haggard - Married.

Whether or not the church should ordain women and married men is a separate issue from getting rid of sex scandals. While the church should ordain married men, women, and homosexuals if it wants to be regarded as a progressive entity, doing so is not a magic bullet that will end the sex scandals. What really needs to change is the church's attitude toward denial and coverup of these scandals.

[JohnFromCensornati]

If they allowed priests to marry, they would have more applicants.
As it is, they don't have enough priests.
They need to keep the pedophiles to hold the business together.

[definitelyNOTmisterRIGHT]

Quaoar, none of those three have been known to molest little boys.

[FrankSchreier]

Yeah, right... because we know that never has a married straight man molested his children....
While most of this article correctly addresses the issue and nature of the priesthood, it fails miserably by linking its shortcomings with the mental/emotional illness/disorder known as Pedophilia.
The latter needs to be understood before any society or organization can effectively deal with it. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation or civil status.

[calluna]

While I agree that the RC should relax its rules on celibacy and priest marriage, I think Bill is conflating two different issues here. Pedophilia is a severe, generally untreatable sexual disorder that probably starts quite early in life. It's not based on making do with whoever happens to be around. Pedophile priests would be driven to molest children even if they were not priests, not "celebate," or married, just as in the general population.

[bethinCary]

Agree with ya Bill.
I find it ironic-that the priests could council thier own members on marraige, love, and sex-never having any experience with it..
To me it's kinda like calling a plumber to fix an electrical problem..

I think the rules about women,monogamy, and priesthood-are relics
The Bible refers to relationships in it--spiritual philosphy too--as that yin & yang of wholeness, of conscious..
I think priests would have a better understanding of a different consciousn­ess/wholen­ess in themselves- if allowed to marry.

[Patrick McCabe]

Amen, Bill.