If Catholic Priests and Nuns were allowed to marry would it damage the church?

The celibacy thing started when the Church realised that wealth was going to wives, mistresses and children. Priests were therefore forbidden to marry ensuring all monies left after death would go into the coffers of the Catholic Church. This, however, has little bearing on paedophilia and the stories coming out about kiddie fiddling. That has more to do with opportunist peadophiles getting into any employment (including the priesthood) that gives them easy access to children - such as teachers, scout leaders, youth club workers, orphanage employees. If it was just about celebacy there would also be a deluge of rapes,

Nuns appear to have channeled their frustrations into being cruel and enjoying giving vicious punishments for minimal crimes, i.e. their is no evidence that celibacy amongst women leads them to sexually target children.

It's a shame that these 'bad eggs' are taking away the good deeds done by the majority of priests and nuns. Let us not forget them.

"What is the problem with the Catholic Church?"

While the Church's handling of the priest pedophile issue has been disgusting, people who know, know that pedophiles aren't the real problem of the Catholic Church. No, the REAL problem is that somewhere between 65% and 90% of the priests are gay and have been for a long time. While one segment of the gay population has fought for their rights, the gay majority in the clergy has chose to deal with their civil rights issue by running a GIANT CON GAME on traditional straights. In the past, the priests actually encouraged their victims, aka ordinary Catholics, to be homophobic. Although they're not quite that bad now, the whole thing is still obscene....

No. I knew the head of an order of nuns in Brazil and a Bolivian Jesuit priest who left the Church to marry. Both were selfless advocates of Liberation theology, organisers of peasant unions and land reform campaigns in Brazil and Bolivia.

They continued their work after they lost the protection, such as it was, of the Church, and both were persecuted by right wing military regimes. By forcing such people to abandon their Church the Catholic hierarchy lost two people who were powerful role models and agents for good.

Instead of encouraging such people the hierarchy and successive Popes have supported right wing reactionary regimes and involved themselves in an illegal international conspiracy to cover up sexual perversion of the worst kind - the abuse of children by paedophile priests.

In the early days of the Church, before the Pauline heresy captured the Church and married it to the State, women played a huge role in the intellectual and organisational life of the Church. Many priests and bishops were women. Look up the Acts of the Apostles and read Paul's own writings. The Church should go back to its roots and learn from history.

Vulpix and Stevie O Jay have both pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The Preisthood do not magically turn law-abiding men into paedophiles - because pretty much ANY man can join the clergy (as Catholics believe in absolution for one's sins), and as the Catholic Church do not run checks anyway, the system of trust is open to abuse. Now before anyone jumps up and down and screams that CRB check will prevent kiddy fiddler priests, most paedophiles do not show up on CRB checks unless they have been caught prior - funnily enough, as most incidences of child abuse occurs by someone in their family or a close family friend - they were not likely to be reported.

By your logic, if celibacy causes paedophilia, how comes our papers are not full of reports of paedophile nuns, Shaolin Monks or Cliff Richards? My mother has been celibate (out of choice) for the last 20 years (I'm from a Catholic family too), am I to keep tabs on her in case the next time she leaves mass, she might leave as a paedophile?

Youe question is, to quote Brasseye, Nonce-sence

Priests who abuse children do NOT do so because they aren't allowed to marry. Allowing them to marry would NOT erase the problem of "kiddie fiddlers".

Priests who abuse are opportunistic paedophiles.

The rest have *chosen* a life of celibacy as part of their vocation to serve the Lord. Most do not have a problem with this and no one is forced to become a priest or nun, therefore because some cannot fully commit to a chaste and disciplined life does not mean the Catholic church should be altered to accommodate them.

Someone said that some of the problems such as paedophilia would disappear if they were allowed to marry and this does a great disservice to the victims. It allows for the belief that they are simply horny and not able to control their sexual appetite because of the constraints placed on them by the church and this is simply grotesque reasoning.

What of men who are married and still rape? Are they doing so because their wife doesn't give them enough sex. Of course not. When will people realise that rape is about power and dominance, control and humiliation and not because the guy is horny and being deprived of sex. Priests who abuse are Paedophiles. We need to stop excusing their behaviour by providing the excuses for it.

If only questions like this were directed to the proper source for information.

The answer saying the irish woman who claimed the priests wife would come before her is the right one..it has NOTHING to do with the church being afraid of sharing it's wealth with a wife of a priest. The church feels "you cannot serve 2 masters." If a priest were to marry, and his first concern was for his wife and children he would not be able to minister to his flock.

Can you picture a wife understanding why on Christmas morning at 4AM her husband has to get out of bed to administer last rites to a dying hospital patient?

Or why on his kids 5th birthday he can't be at the party because he has a group of kids receiving first communion?

And just to try and clear a few "unclear" points presented here.

Nuns are the bride of Christ, not priests

The church certainly investigates each and every candidate for the priesthood. If they have a lot of debt they are given the chance to live in a church and work off the debt before entering the seminary..they have up to 2 years to complete this.

If any flaw in character is seen by their mentor they are immediately removed, if they are from another country they are handed a return ticket home within hours..not days

Most of these answers are nothing more than Catholic bashing..and it's getting kind of old.

I don't know the Catholic Church's reasoning for why priests or nuns cannot marry in the western right. An already married priest may join though through the eastern right, for example an Anglican priest who leaves the CofE to join the Catholic Church in this way. Rabbis must be married, priests are usually married in the Orthodox and protestant churches. Peter was very very likely married.

You need to understand more about the teachings of Jesus Christ and the word of God in the Bible. Your question is very simplistic. WHy don't you ask why we all can't get along and have world peace? That is how off base your question is.

The reason is the current way is what Jesus taught. If Jesus comes back and says to do differently - the church will change accordingly. The Catholic Church also won't bend on the idea of murdering babies being wrong or homosexual activity being sinful. Just because MSNBC says so - that does not change the theology and two thousand years of sacred tradition in the Church.

As an Irish woman said to a married ex priest,

" I know that if you were a married priest you'd put your wife and family before me. "

God and their parishioners come first before the baggage of wives and family lives.

That’s the way it is, so accept it.

Same goes for all religions. That’s why they’re called ‘ different ‘ religions.

Do you want all religions to be the same and follow the same rules and beliefs??

There are no more paedophiles in the Catholic church than there are if you walked down the street. Do you attack them? The media and noticeably the BBC is a gay friendly workplace and they like to attack their enemy. You seem to have let yourself go along with this without thinking intelligently for yourself. The problem’s with you or gay media not other religions. There are as many paedophilic Rabbi’s as there are C of E, as Catholics, as Moslem, as Hindus, as Buddhist Monks, etc, etc as there are in the rest of the world’s population. How much cover-up is there in other religions?

How often do you hear the media refer to gay paedophiles as ‘ gay paedophiles ‘ or ‘ paedophilic gays’?

How exactly would a Priest marrying a Woman stop them from wanting to have SEX with BOYS - The argument that allowing Priests to marry would stop child abuse does not make any sense - And anyone who has helped to cover up an act of child abuse is just as abhorrent as the Priest guilty of the crime (Aren't they Ratzinger!!!)...

I'm sure there are also plenty of Nun's out there who have sexually abused children...

Someone is supposed to have said "you can tell a tree by the fruit it bears...", in that case, the Roman Catholic Tree must be rotten to the core!