Dear runner,

We hear tonight on the ABC of a number of Christian priests in Newcastle who repeatedly abused countless young boys despite parents going to the Bishop to have it stopped. It never was. One of these Christian officials use a knife to cut the young lad's back as he was buggering him, apparently to symbolise the blood of Christ which he would smear over his torso.

This lad was buggered nearly every week by Christian clergy for nearly 3 years.

Yet you and others would rather condemn the ABC for airing these stories than condemn leaders of your own faith who severly abused so many Australian children.

I would hate to think of how many of these youngsters ended up taking their own lives either directly or by the long spiral of self medication with drugs and alcohol but i can guarantee it would be may times more than victims of Islamic terrorism.

Shame, shame, shame.

Well said Steele. I find it contradictory from people like runner, who on the one hand are happy to see the popular media publicly name and shame people of their choice 'A Current Affair' on channel 9 almost nightly conduct trial by media of all sorts of people, from dodgy plumbers to alleged terrorists. Then when the media air allegations against one of his own, in this case George Pell, he demands a blanket of secrecy be thrown over the whole affair.
The independent media, for all its failings, plays a vital roll in society by openly, and hopefully critically, reporting allegations involving police. It is always dangerous for a free society to tolerate secret investigations by authority, which can have undesired consequence for all.

ttbn,

Just because all those other categories of people have child sex abusers, that doesn’t mean that celibacy cannot be an aggravating factor. You’re employing the same logic here that you did on another thread where you implied that anomalies to a trend prove that that trend does not exist (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=18413&page=0#326647). You’ve also ignored the fact that child sex abuse is far more rampant among the priesthood.

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“…another member of the commission, also discounted any direct link between celibacy and being an abuser, “because, otherwise, all people who live a celibate life would abuse. Since this is not the case, there cannot be a single, mono-causal link.”

“But he added: “That’s not to say, in some instances, people may choose celibacy in a more or less conscious or unconscious way to avoid sexuality and to avoid a deviant sexuality.” In such cases, he said, they “may choose celibacy so they can feel [they are] in a safe haven where they don’t need to confront it.

“Such an attitude, he said, “is absolutely nonsense,” as people “cannot simply shut away their sexuality” for years and decades. “So the attempt to cut off or put it in a fridge forever doesn’t work.”

He stressed that clinical pedophilia is a condition “whose onset is at the age of 16, that is, before anyone enters a seminary.” For this reason, he said, a celibate lifestyle “in a certain way may become too difficult to bear for the person in terms of loneliness and in pressure of not living a well-established and good, self-caring — in the best sense of the word — life.””

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-there-a-link-between-priestly-celibacy-and-sexual-abuse

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The above is basically what I was getting at.

//You’ve also ignored the fact that child sex abuse is far more rampant among the priesthood.//

Is it? Do you have any quantitative data to support this assertion?

Is it possible that child sex abuse among the priesthood is just far more rampantly reported than child sex abuse amongst other professions? Horror stories about paedophile priests make good headlines, but when was the last time you saw a story about a paedophile tradesman? Or scientist? And yet, we know that they must exist. Media reports are not an accurate reflection of statistical realities.

If it is the case priests are more likely to commit child sex abuse, I still don't see the logical connection with celibacy: most Protestant priests aren't required to be celibate.

Okay, Toni Lavis. I’ll withdraw that comment. Although, for the reasons I mention above, and the apparent culture of the priesthood, I’d be quite happy to put money on it if there were a way of finding out one way or the other.

<<If it is the case priests are more likely to commit child sex abuse, I still don't see the logical connection with celibacy: most Protestant priests aren't required to be celibate.>>

I’ve mentioned a logical connection a couple of times now. Do you mean to say that you don’t see the statistical connection? Protestant ministers and priests aren’t required to remain celibate, but does child sex abuse occur as frequently among them?

A J Philips:

"Protestant ministers and priests aren’t required to remain celibate, but does child sex abuse occur as frequently among them?"

There is no way of knowing because not every act of child abuse is reported. It could be that they abuse their own children. It is about how you access children and not about celibacy.

Catholic priests and religious teachers had certain conditions which gave them access to children and also a certain power over them because when a priest says "this is what God wants you to do" you do it. It is about access and power and not about sexual satisfaction.

It is no more about sex than is rape simply about sexual gratification.