Moving of a mountain: Pedophiles or Catholic celibacy?

'Celibacy should be a natural outgrowth of an individual's spirituality', if that is what the priests at the Catholic Church choose then why are we witnessing dioceses going bankrupt owing to the millions being paid to those sexually abused by the clergy? The record $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese of LA and 508 victims of clergy sexual abuse approved by a judge raises the concerns, if Catholic Church will ever change the mandatory requirement for celibacy.

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The revelation of this long ulcerous scandal of child molestation and official cover-ups, which has deeply wounded the Church has also given rise to glib and too familiar excuse that corrupt doctrine of celibacy is the real problem leading to the rise of sexual predator in priestly robes.

There should be no place in a society for this kind of thinking for this would relate that self-restraint is impossible, that men are victims of their own uncontrollable urges. This would mean to degrade men as wandering 'sex bombs' under terrible pressure, ready to explode at any time and further that women can be an ideal prey for such men, who then will serve as blotting paper to absorb any aggressive sexual energies one might contain, so that the larger part of the community remains safe.

Many analysts think so, since this seems to be a favored explanation for the misdeeds of 'pedophiles'. If celibacy has to be blamed for the acts of pedophiles and compare the Church's environment to that of prisons, like journalist Richard Blow, where men rape other men and boys only because they desperately need an outlet for their sexual desires, it will be resting the sickening case of degrading moral authority of priests to traditional notion of 'the hydraulic theory' of male sexuality.

While the social pattern suggests that, these 'inside' behaviors occur exactly the same way as they do 'outside'. Just check how many rape and child abuse cases are reported in the newspaper each day. The infamous Nithari case in India is just the recent episode to bring this debate to an end that pedophiles are not the result of lack of opportunity for sexual congress but because of the lack of our social responsibility.

Father Jonathan Morris who wrote a column putting 'the phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors in church settings as the story of sick human beings taking advantage of their position of moral authority to prey on the weak' and 'vulnerable and blaming the individuals for being unfaithful to the most basic precepts of their own religious belief' is right to all the extent.

In other words, we as a society are denying the existence of morality as part of freedom of expression to tout personal liberty and rights and getting closer to a point where these societal wounds will be hard to heal.