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Why are so Many Catholic Clergy Convicted PEDOPHILES?

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The rate of pedophilia among Catholic clergy is NO HIGHER than the rate of pedophilia among any other population group.

    If your question is why is there pedophilia at all, it's because we live in a sick and twisted society where sex is considered "good" as long as one person feels "good" during the sexual act and because children are highly devalued.

  • 1 decade ago

    HERE ARE some frank acknowledgements:

    *** g90 3/22 p. 29 Watching the World ***

    HOMOSEXUAL CLERGY

    “It’s time that someone said it bluntly,” writes cleric Andrew Greeley in the National Catholic Reporter. “Church leaders are guilty of yet one more folly, one that is destroying everything for which the Catholic priesthood once stood.” What is that? “Church leadership is tolerating a double standard on celibacy and, because of stupidity and cowardice, permitting the priesthood to become substantially, perhaps in due course mostly, gay,” says Greeley. While acknowledging that “many priests, bishops, popes and even saints in ages past have probably been more homosexual than heterosexual in their orientation,” he believes that current ecclesiastical policy toward the sexuality of priests is causing the clergy to become predominantly homosexual, damaging even more “the already tarnished image of the priesthood.” Greeley adds: “It appears that many homosexual priests ordained in the past two decades are sexually active and that some of them are also pedophiles [prefer children as sex objects]

    *** g89 1/22 p. 9 Christendom Walks in the Way of Canaan ***

    An independent Catholic newspaper, the National Catholic Reporter, of February 27, 1987, said that homosexual clergy estimated that 50 percent of the U.S. Catholic priesthood is homosexual. This figure is contested. One psychologist, basing his statement on 1,500 interviews, says that 20 percent of the 57,000 U.S. Catholic priests are homosexual, whereas more recent reports make “other therapists think the true figure today may be closer to 40 percent.”

    >>SIMPLY STATED the more homosexual priests you have, the more pediphilia is practiced by them!

  • 1 decade ago

    I don't know what you mean by 'so many', but in response to the rest of your question, a) because the catholic clergy and the catholic church are held to higher standards than the rest of society by the media and the media has a vested interest in making the Catholic church look bad, and b) pedophilia is a terrible thing and catholic clergy who commit it get convicted.

  • 1 decade ago

    More school teachers have been convicted then priests. The small minority (less then 1%) of priests that were accused of pedophilia were homosexuals that infiltrated the church in the 40's. The majority of these priests are either dead or have been brought up on chrages. Pedophilia is more rampant amongst fathers, sons,grandfathers, uncles,policemen, firemen, teachers, next door neighbors and coaches,ministers, pastors, doctors, nurses,dentists. Pedophilia is in all walks of life. Being celibate has NOTHING to do with being a pedophile. If you look at the above examples these are all sexually active men that have commited pedophilia

  • 1 decade ago

    Father Richard Sipe, no friend of teh Catholic hierarchy, estimates that "6 percent of all Catholic priests and religious involved themselves with minors." Let us,. for the moment, assume that every last one of these 6% was accused, tried and convicted. If 6% is "so many" to you, then you are right in one sense: the violent sexual assault of a single child is a horrible crime. But you are wrong if you are suggesting that a majority of Catholic priests are involved with this terrible sin.

    The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for. But I suggest that you check into the facts about your own group before condemning mine. If you are a Catholic, work for change in the Church -- especially the cult of personality that allows some priests to act like gods. If you are not a Catholic, pray for us. We need it!

  • pab
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    Many of them? I think you're quite a ways off when you say many. A few of them, perhaps, but not many of them were CONVICTED, where they.

    Catholic priests have no higher rates of pedophilia than clergy of other religions. It's just the coverups and the media attention that made it look that way.

    This is coming from someone who DOESN'T believe in the christian faith, but it was all just a big media frenzy.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I think its becaue of the basic nature of the catholic church not allowing men to get married.

    But, its still a little weird considering most of the victims are boys instead of girls.

    Its possible, that since the catholic church is dominated with males, that males automaticlly turn to male companionship, even in sex. But, coming out gay as a priest is a nono and I think these priests are acting out gay actions with children thinking they'll never get caught, or are afraid as hell to act it out on an adult level.

  • 1 decade ago

    Actually, a miniscule percentage of them are convicted. Most often, the police were promised that they'd be moved to a job in which they'd have no contact with children, in exchange for which the police would drop all charges The perp would be moved to another parish with no restrictions whatsoever and no warning to the people of the parish, and he'd set about grooming a new set of kids for abuse.

    No conviction.

  • 1 decade ago

    I thnk you will find that, as a percentage, there are not as many as you suppose. Certainly there will have been more pedophiles within the clergy than have been convicted - there is a tendency for cases to be hushed up.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Catholic priests are all single males. Traditionally the Catholic priesthood has been a magnet for homosexuals and in some cases pedophiles.

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