HermanYutic,

The catholic church has made a few changes in recognising that the earth is not the centre of the solar system, and that it does not have the god given right to torture and kill heretics.

I don't expect the catholic church to change their dogma with respect to contraception, abortion, homosexuality, or divorce, as the rest of the world has moved on without them. Similarily, I have no issues with what goes on between the consenting adults behind abbey walls.

However, I do want action to prevent the damage they inflict on the most vulnerable in our society. The actions required are:

Expose and prosecute those responsible, and those involved in hiding and protecting the perpetrators.

Find and eliminate the root cause for the prevalence of this behaviour. I suggested that higher rate of occurence in the catholic church was probably due to the requirement for "celebacy" of its priests, but there are probably other causes too.

MJPB,

The relatively high incidence in the catholic church vs other denominations might be relevant to the root causes, but is a distraction from the abuse that is occurring and the need for the catholic church to make fundemental changes.

Shadow Minister,

"However, I do want action to prevent the damage they inflict on the most vulnerable in our society. The actions required are:

Expose and prosecute those responsible"

tick

"and those involved in hiding and protecting the perpetrators."

Logistically more difficult and many are probably dead.

"Find and eliminate the root cause for the prevalence of this behaviour."

Whether the root cause is unhappy childhoods or genes I don't think the onus should be put on the Catholic Church to deal with that. They should only screen applicants, and locate and deal with offenders.

"I suggested that higher rate of occurence in the catholic church was probably due to the requirement for "celebacy" of its priests, but there are probably other causes too."

First you will have to establish the "higher rate of occurence" from something more compelling than media attitude toward the Catholic Church.

"The relatively high incidence in the catholic church vs other denominations might be relevant to the root causes, but is a distraction from the abuse that is occurring and the need for the catholic church to make fundemental changes."

It is not clear that it is a relatively high incidence.

Dear Herman,

By all means have and enjoy your
religion and your views, fight for
a moral society and try to evangelize
all the gay-loving radicals all you like ...

Australians will eventually decide on
the issue of same-sex marriage and
what you or I think
- nobody will really care.

Shadow Minister,

<Find and eliminate the root cause for the prevalence of this behaviour.>

Even as we speak a small part of the problem is being addressed:

"cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"[10].
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html

Which unfortunately doesn't address the far bigger problem of purging the existing ranks.

Fact: Priests have more than four times higher death-rate from AIDS than the general population.
Question: How would a priest acquire AIDS?
Answer: The same way any other homosexual would.

For an eye-opening read:
"The Gay Priest Problem"
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=20565

MJPB,

I beg to differ: read this article and then comment.

http://exchristian.net/2/2006/12/clergy-sex-abuse-widespread-across.html

"Extensive research by the three authors, which includes documents in church archives, indicates that about 30 percent of the 50,000 priests and bishops in the U.S. are homosexual, Sipe says.

About 9 percent of priests in the U.S. over the past 50 years have sexually abused a minor at least once, he says.

The abusers include homosexuals, bisexuals and heterosexuals, he said. He estimates that 64 percent of the abusers are homosexual, 27 percent are heterosexual and 9 percent are bisexual."

Unless you have anything to show that say the protestant churches have close to 9% paedophilic priests I would have to say that it is quite conclusive.

Your comment of "Whether the root cause is unhappy childhoods or genes I don't think the onus should be put on the Catholic Church to deal with that. They should only screen applicants, and locate and deal with offenders." is not sufficient.

As most offenders aren't picked up until multiple offenses are committed, and as per the article, only 10% of the priests had any record whatsoever, your proposal is basically business as usual.

The cause is due to the structure of the church, and cosmetic changes are not sufficient.

Shadow Minister,

I skimmed through the article.Actually I have seen similar estimates for protestants.

The article also included Clohessy of SNAP pointing out that "an extraordinary tiny percentage of pedophiles go into the priesthood." Minors are anyone up to age 18. You need to draw a distinction between paedophiles and having sex with post pubescent males particularly since the homosexual age of consent was only lowered to heterosexual standards fairly recently. Previously the gay sex with a participant who could legally participate if they were heterosexual was abuse. That looks bad for both Catholics and homosexuals but isn't an issue any more.