BishopAccountability.org
	Celibacy Isn't Cause of Sex Abuse By Andrew Greeley Chicago Sun-Times February 13, 2008 http://www.suntimes.com/news/greeley/790518,CST-EDT-GREEL13.article A couple of weeks ago I challenged the conventional wisdom of some Catholic liberals that celibacy is the cause of sexual abuse of children and young people by priests. I pointed out that it was also a problem for married Protestant clergy. What was unique for Catholics was the cover-up by church authorities -- a strategy that worked for a long, long time. Celibacy does not cause abuse, and marriage is not a cure for it. I was deluged with hate mail from angry priests and laity. It was obvious, they ranted, that celibacy was the cause of abuse. Yet a Greek Orthodox priest wrote me an e-mail asserting that "even the married Greek clergy are not immune from pedophilia." He referred me to the Web page the Orthodox Church maintains about its problems, www.ortho doxreform.org. My ranting critics ridiculed my sociological data about the professional and personal happiness of priests in comparison with ministers. I suggest they look up the Greek Web page. The Greeks are transparent about their problems. They don't seem to rally around their offenders in protective circles of denial. Quite the contrary, they seem to distance themselves from the abusers. They don't argue, as I heard several years ago from an Irish priest, "Father, they are PRIESTS!" I contend that the problem will be solved only when priests assume full responsibility for self-policing. The current response of many priests is to wash their hands of the crimes and blame the bishops while at the same time they demand the abolition of obligatory celibacy. Their crusade against celibacy -- and by implications against celibates -- is a cover-up for their failure to protect children and young people in the past. It may well be that celibacy should be optional if only to attract more young people to priestly vocations. I wonder, however, how many young women would want to be married to a priest in the Church today. The Catholic Church is in a gosh awful mess, mainly because the Roman Curia has, in the words of the London Tablet, aborted the reforms of the Vatican Council and concentrated all power in itself. The great -- and reasonable -- hopes of the council have been blighted, not permanently indeed, but temporarily. Once an admired and respected profession (vocation, if you will), the priesthood is now in disgrace. It remains to be demonstrated that married priests could restore the image of the clergy and the morale of the laity. A young man who considers the priesthood today has to make a strong act of faith that it would be a happy choice. Nor is the restoration of the Latin mass likely to have much of an effect, despite the starry-eyed conviction that it will undo some of the effects of the council. Those who wish to revoke the council seem blithely unaware that you can't do that, and it is blind folly to try. In fact, the priesthood would be a happy choice if one takes seriously the empirical data. But who takes such data seriously in this era of Grand Ideology and Grand Ideologues? Both the married life and the celibate life have their advantages and disadvantages. Both callings are honorable and difficult. Both are pleasing to God. Both have their problems and both have their graces. At one time clericalist ideology demeaned the calling of the married laity. Now a more recent ideology demeans the calling of the celibate clergy. It is time for this silly and immature confrontation to stop.
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