Pope Francis

Quote: FrGamble

Do you think men who prayerfully prepare and are formed on their intelect and will for seven years for the challenges, sacrifices, and gifts of celibacy will turn to some kind of sick abuse if they don't have sex or masturbate?

'Gifts of celibacy', I love oxymorons. Again, which
men specifically. Obviously some do, so you can't
make a huge generalized statement like that.

You do realize that anything at all can be called
a 'gift', but that doesn't make it so. I can wrap a
dog turd in gold paper and put a ribbon on it
and give to my brother for Xmas and call it a gift.
But is it, really?

Padre, has the Catholic Church considered building a parish at Burning Man? There is already a Jewish camp and one for Pastafarians.

Quote: Wizard

and one for Pastafarians.

I like Ronzoni elbows and spaghetti sauce with onions and garlic.

Quote: Wizard

Padre, has the Catholic Church considered building a parish at Burning Man? .

There's no money and a bunch of Libs
who are probably mostly atheists?
Probably not..

I think the Catholic church wanted to 'hide' pedophile priests and control their behaviors if not their desires mainly to protect against liability but also to keep from losing priests.

Its a question of protecting the institution but one wonders about the headline of sex in an automobile without tinted windows ... what value is a priest with such stupidity?

Quote: Fleastiff

one wonders about the headline of sex in an automobile without tinted windows ... what value is a priest with such stupidity?

They probably got away with it so
many times they got careless. They
say a drunk driver only gets pulled
over once for every 50 times he
drives drunk. Ditto with shoplifters.

Quote: FrGamble

A couple of things.

First of all there have always been celibate priests and there have always been married priests. It is still that way today.

Have any of the married priests been accused of pedophilia? Not that married people don't partake, just wondering if the priests, with their religious convictions and desire to serve fail as do non priests.

Quote:

.... I don't think the stats bear out any of the concern that it is celibacy or some kind of repressed sexuality that causes this behavior.

It might be interesting if someone did a poll or study to see if the % of pedo priests that are "celibate", is very similar to other xtian religions where the preachers marry and have children of their own?

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What the stats do clearly show is that the vast majority, more than 80% of the priests who committed these abuses were homosexual.

I don't know how one would determine that a celibate person was homosexual or not, if other than the pedophilia they didn't participate in sex acts?

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The other thing is that I don't underatand how someone's immoral actions mean that what they believe or teach is wrong. That seems like a logical fallacy.

People generally do what they think is right, even if everyone else thinks it's wrong. Take witch burning for example. The church and the local gov, hand in hand burned people to death, thinking it was the right thing to do. If they thought it was wrong, they wouldn't do it.

Quote: petroglyph

Have any of the married priests been accused of pedophilia? Not that married people don't partake, just wondering if the priests, with their religious convictions and desire to serve fail as do non priests.

In the case of pedophilia the percentage of priests who are accused is actually a little lower than the general population. This of course takes into consideration the strict understanding of pedophilia, the abuse of pre-pubescent children. This sickness is different than the majority of cases involving priests that is usually young males who are after puberty. That is why many people have pointed to the issue of homosexuality in the priesthood as a serious issue. Evenbob has talked extensively about this and even though I denied it, it turns out that he was more right than me in regards to the problem in the priesthood.

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It might be interesting if someone did a poll or study to see if the % of pedo priests that are "celibate", is very similar to other xtian religions where the preachers marry and have children of their own?

Again if you limit the study to pedophilia you will see very similar or close numbers, usually a little lower, than when compared to other Christiany religions, other religions, schoolteachers, or family members.

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I don't know how one would determine that a celibate person was homosexual or not,

It is true that celibacy doesn't correspond to any orientation when lived out properly.

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People generally do what they think is right, even if everyone else thinks it's wrong. Take witch burning for example. The church and the local gov, hand in hand burned people to death, thinking it was the right thing to do. If they thought it was wrong, they wouldn't do it.

When local governments and individual Churches or people did these things did that make it right?

I agree that people do what they think is right. Thank God that morality is not based on an individuals' understanding of right or wrong or on the majority of society's understanding of what is wrong or right.

Quote: FrGamble

morality is not based on an individuals' understanding of right or wrong or on the majority of society's understanding of what is wrong or right.

WRONG!

"Morality comes from us - we make it. The foundation starts with a few biological sources, such as the basic survival instinct, and behaviors of social species. After that, human philosophy, and assessment of harm versus benefit, establish what we call morality. By "harm", we mean any kind of physical, emotional or personal violation.
Morality is basically a derived set of behaviors that allow multiple humans to cooperate in a society, and generally get along. The goals are to maximize benefit and happiness while minimizing harm and misery. Actions taken towards this goal can be evaluated and are labeled as moral and immoral, respectively."

As usual, god has nothing to do
with anything because god does
not exist.

Just a small point.

Even though the percentage might be smaller than the general population, they are set up in a situation that undoubtedly gives them greater success:

They are in a position of authority
They have access to children
They are (were) more implicity trusted