http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050603/ap_on_...buse_settlement
"end of days"
but only for the vatican

This has been going on for a while. Catholic priests, not allowed to marry, choir boys are harping away, takes one to the back for more vigorous vocal lessons.

Ok that was in poor taste, but it is actually mostly catholic priests, not protestants.

This is some good news for years I could not believe priest never faced punishment for what they did to some people.

Any life system that refuses to take basic human biological functions into account will, inevitably, lead to deviant behaviour.

Maybe they should form their own perverted little club and leave the children alone.

No catholics willing to offer an opinion
i can't say i'm surprised really

i guess ill offer my opinion.
id say that the frequency of child abuse among priests is probably about the same as with the rest of the population. it just makes the news because, well they are priests.
i highly doubt all priests are pedophiles. the vast majority are probably fine and perfectly safe to have around children.

Reminds me of a joke.....

A bus full of 20 priests were on a day trip when their bus crashed and they all died.
At the pearly gates the priests started walking right thru thinking they had a free pass.
St. Peter said "woah boys"
"You first must pass a test before you enter the gates"
The priests all were perplexed that they would need a test, but all agreed to St. Peter's demands.
St. Peter gave them all instructions to drop their pants and tie a bell to the end of their manhood.
They all complied.
St. Peter then sent out a beautiful woman to parade amongst the priests touching them, rubbing up against them all while St. Peter listened.
Ah ha, cried St. Peter, hearing a bell begin to tinkle then rattle away with gusto.
He walked up to the priest who's bell had now been silenced because it fell to the floor.
I caught you. The bell does not lie.
St. Peter then bent down to pick up the bell that had fallen to the ground, and as he did the other 19 bells started to tinkle.

Pedophilia in the priest hood is overrated, among the priest hood that are sexually active only less then 12% admitted or were found guilty of sexually abusing children, well you ask what about the other 80% well they have prostitutes, lovers, and pornography. I got these stats from a documentary I saw about sexuality and religion i forgot the title, I'll post it if I can remember it or find it on the net.

edit: the documentary I saw was an HBO documentery called "Celibacy" here is a link to the documentary

Personally i think this was just waiting to happen
in any male dominated society where you take away the permission to have normal sex it is a human thing to seek it elsewhere. Having sex with women is against the rules. Having sex with children is against the rules. Whats the difference to a lusty priest who needs to expell testosterone
The fact that this subject comes to light again and again with men who are supposed to be above suspicion and chaste just shows the inadequacy of having a policy of celibacy.
However i'm not making excuses for paedophiles and think that the Roman Catholic church would do well to relaunch one of its other controversial policies to take care of this one
castrati anyone ?

Yeah I guess castration would be best the documentary I saw said about 10% of the priest hood decided to get castrated.

I think allowing Catholic Priest to marry and have sex with their wives should be allowed instead would solve most of the sex scandals in the church. The rules of celibacy in the church is not even in the bible. I think it was sometime in the 14th century they demanded Priest to follow celibacy.

edit: the documentary I saw was an HBO documentery called "Celibacy" here is a link to the documentary

edited the link

A common fallacy of castration is that it involves the removal of all related equiptment. It actually only means the removal of the testis, and in the past, sometimes only meant the removal of one (pointless, as we now know). The penis remains in full functioning form, a fact that was well-known to the harem girls of ancient times, who's masters often had castrated servants looking after them, confident that they would be protected from other men.

On the bright side, it would mean the return of the long-defunct "castrati" male soprano singers.

Although I agree that pedophilia is a major problem in the catholic church, there is a bigger issue here. The fact that these are “men of god” supposedly teaching the way of their lord greatly disturbs me. Should they not be held to a higher standard as a person in authority? I had this discussion with a catholic once and… you guessed it, if its good its the “will of god”, and if its bad it’s the “work of the devil”. How very convenient that this crutch can be applied to everything.

And if that isn’t enough we have the church actually covering up these atrocities against children. I personally believe that this equates to condoning the activity. What happened to an eye for an eye? Or does that only apply to those that refuse to follow the christian beliefs?

Yes, exactly! As a former Catholic, I never liked many of the church's doctrines, including this one. Allowing them to marry would indeed help solve the pedophilia amongst priests, not to mention also attracting more men to the priesthood.

The eye for an eye law was put forward by Hammurabi the great of Babylonia.
so i guess it ended when Babylon did.
Though iirc according to the bible Babylon is coming back.
so til then its off the statutes

Well, me being a Christian, I don't like this anymore than you guys do.

I think those priests are sick _____ <---Add a common four letter word here (it's rhymes with ducks.)

Ofcourse, some might say "a few bad priests doing a few bad things" but no,we can see there's a system that encourages this behaviour.

Celibacy or the renunciation of marriage is mandatory for clergies in the Roman Catholic churches. Though not required by the Bible, it is regarded as a purely disciplinary law sanctioned by some articles of the New Testament.

That`s one of the reasons that God sent Muhammad(pbuh),to restore the earlier religion to their pristine purity.

The Islamic view on sex can be best appreciated by contrasting it with the extremes which have occurred in history. On the one hand, there have been examples of complete moral looseness leading to promiscuity, which was backed by philosophers who said that pleasure is at the basis of morals. On the other hand, there were and are people who think that the sexual urge is unclean, dirty, satanic and evil. Islam provides a balance between the two because it calls for the recognition of the basic human instincts without making a person feel guilty, but at the same time provides also some limitations as to how they can be satisfied. These limitations and encouragements are as follows:

a- Prohibition of sexual relationships outside marriage.
b- Strict prohibition of adultery and fornication.
c- Allah created people with an instinctive desire to fulfil their sexual desire, enjoy children and property etc. Therefore, Islam does not make people feel guilty for satisfying these desires in a legitimate way. It does however, remind people to look to the life hereafter as well as this life.
d- The Qur'an proclaims that the desire for marriage is a desirable thing in itself and having a good spouse is said to be a blessing from God.
e- Monasticism and celibacy hold no virtue according to Islam. In the sayings of the prophet Muhammad(pbuh) monasticism is discouraged in many ways.

ref:(Islamic Teachings Course; vol. 2)

to say that, one would have to compare rates of child abuse among priests to the outside world. i dont think anyone has done any studies on it.

I think those who covered it up and let it go on and on should be put a jail. Of coarse the church rewarded Cardinal Law for his actions in protecting the prests. Something real wrong there.

***Yawn...*oh they abuse them now? ***Yawn...*

A lot of people hit it right on the head with this one Roman Catholic Priests can't marry and that's the source of all of these pedophile priests but I don't think that it's because they can't have sex that they turn to children. I believe it's more that people who are predisposed to be a pedophile tend to fear their own sexuality and turn to the church as a way to avoid ever having to deal with it. Can't marry, can't have sex hence never have to deal with those issues of their person. Because of this the Catholic Church draws more people that are prone to this sort of behavior. Allowing priests to marry would definitely go a long way towards getting rid of this sort of thing.
Unfortunately the doctrine of not judging others and forgiving transgressions led to the priests who committed these atrocities being protected and shuffled from parish to parish instead of being excommunicated and turned in as they should have been.

Sucks?

ducks ?