BishopAccountability.org
	European Prelates Speak on Abuse, Priestly Celibacy: a Connection? Catholic Culture March 11, 2010 http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5697 Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schonborn has said that the broadening sex-abuse scandal indicates a need to re-think the training that priests receive. The Austrian prelate called for a thorough and "unflinching" discussion of the possible causes for sexual abuse by Catholic priests. No topics should be taboo during that discussion, the cardinal said; he called for a frank evaluation of how priests have handled the consequences of the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s, and analysis of how priests are trained for a life of celibacy. Several English newspapers reported that Cardinal Schonborn had said that priestly celibacy is the root cause of the sex-abuse problem. He did not. Nor did he call for an end to clerical celibacy. As spokesman for the Vienna archdiocese, responding to these interpretations of the cardinal's statement, issued a clarification that Cardinal Schonbron "did not call into question celibacy in any way." His focus was on how young men are prepared to live with that discipline. In Rome the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, confirmed that Church leaders are not planning any change in the rule of priestly celibacy, which he described as "a gift from the Holy Spirit." Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiga, asked whether he saw a connection between celibacy and abuse, replied: 'I don't understand how there can be a link." Archbishop Gerhard Mueller of Regensberg, Germany, was even more dismissive, saying that any claim to see a connection was "nonsense."
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