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	If Gold Rusts, What Will Iron Do? By Leon J. Podles The Dialogue April 29, 2011 http://www.podles.org/dialogue/ No one knows with any certainty the percentages of homosexually-inclined or abusive men in the various churches. On the surface it would seem that celibacy would be a cover for someone who does not want to admit his homosexual inclinations to himself or to others. But the Anglicans have had big problem with homosexual molestation of teenage boys, often by married clergy. The clergy, in addition to attracting people with good or at least not harmful motivations, would tend to attract narcissists who love the attention and who enjoy manipulating people. Even worse, some of the rhetoric that has been used to exalt the Catholic clergy could attract megalomaniacs like Maciel and Karadima. Of course politicians are narcissistic and megalomaniac, and molesters occur in all occupations. But priests are carefully observed for years. Occasionally a psychopath might slip through, but why so many? And once they are in the clergy, they have access to vulnerable people who have been taught that priests are super-Christians, because they are so close to the sacraments. Also, if the sacraments help to sanctify a person’s life, why do priests at least not show a reasonable attainment of virtue? They have the closest association to the sacraments; why do the sacraments fail to lead to ordinary human virtue in almost all priests?
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