BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
December 17, 2018
During the past few months, I have heard it argued that there is no connection between celibacy and the sexual abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic Church.
Declarations that “celibacy doesn’t cause pedophilia” may be true, but don’t mean that there is no connection.
In my opinion, the celibacy requirement has contributed to the severe shortage of priests.
This, I believe, has not only caused the church to be less than selective when accepting candidates for the priesthood, but is also the reason that predatory priests have been moved from place to place, hidden, and has persuaded church officials to ignore their moral and civic duties.
In the distant past, when parochial schools flourished, the church had fertile grounds from which to recruit both boys and girls to religious vocations. Children often went directly from the eighth grade to the seminary or convent.
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