I think the experts agree that compulsory clerical celibacy is not a DIRECT cause of priests sexually abusing children and adults.
The majority of priests do not sexually abuse either children or adults.
The percentage of priests sexually abusing children is way under 10%.
But in my view compulsory celibacy is a contributing factor to sexual abuse by priests.
If you force everybody – (400,000) in a particular walk of life to avoid the normal, adult and consensual outlets for the powerful human sexual drive, you are in the business of creating “monsters”.
Celibacy is a God given gift given to the very few.
You cannot impose that “gift” on all without creating havoc.
Another contributing factor to turning priests (and others) into abusers is to give people, from an early age, an extremely skewed understanding of human sexuality.
This makes sex dirty and turns some men into dirty men.
This skewed understanding of sex includes:
1. That the body is bad and the soul is good.
2. That normal sexual imaginations and fantasies are impure thoughts.
3. That masturbation is self abuse, self pollution etc.
4. That God intended sex for procreation purposes alone.
5. That same sex attraction and love making are disordered and mortally sinful.
Traditional RCC teaching has played a significant role in producing sexual deviancey and sexual deviants.
For a long time now RCC schools, colleges and seminaries, have been producing sexually disabled individuals.
If you teach that the beautiful gift of human sexuality is a monstrous activity unworthy of the Kingdom of God, you create monsters like Brendan Smyth and Ted McCarrick!
The RCC, as a centuries old “anti sex factory” has produced many sexual land mines!
And today, they are exploding internationally!!!
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 