Ask a Catholic

[jeepnut]

Originally Posted by Combine 017

Do you believe that dinosaurs once roamed the Earth? Or that God just decided to put some random bones in the dirt to screw with us and get a few laughs out of it?

Yes, dinosaurs roamed the earth from roughly 230 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. Also, the earth is roughly 4 - 4.5 billion years old. The Catholic Church has no issues with science. In fact some of the world's greatest scientists have been Catholic priests, monks, friars, and nuns.

[Combine 017]

Originally Posted by jeepnut

Yes, dinosaurs roamed the earth from roughly 230 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. Also, the earth is roughly 4 - 4.5 billion years old. The Catholic Church has no issues with science. In fact some of the world's greatest scientists have been Catholic priests, monks, friars, and nuns.

Well thats good. Who are the ones that dont think dinosaurs existed? I dont really know the difference between Catholic and the other Christian or whatever religions.

[Professor S]

Considering the trouble the church has had with priests molesting children, should the marriage ban be removed? The bible does not call for it, and it seems exclude those would otherwise consider being a priest while attracting people that are running from their perverse sexual impulses and hoping priesthood would cure them.

[Teuthida]

Interesting stuff about the trinity. Thanks.


Ok, so if it's having a barrier that's the problem then sex while not completely naked shouldn't be allowed either right? Leaving your socks on should be just as bad.

[jeepnut]

Originally Posted by Teuthida

Interesting stuff about the trinity. Thanks.


Ok, so if it's having a barrier that's the problem then sex while not completely naked shouldn't be allowed either right? Leaving your socks on should be just as bad.

I think you're missing my point slightly. The barrier that seperates procreation from the procreative act (sex) is the issue. The Church makes no requirement that spouses be completely naked during sex. If this were the case, there would be no Catholic children concieved in Canada between the months of October and May.

[Professor S]

Just to clarify, I never thought that celibacy led to pedophilia, only that it would attract those looking for a religious cure. The John Jay study is interesting, but it only compares priests against the general population. I would like to see a study against the rates of clergy from other religions that allow marriage.

But moreso, if celibacy isn't called for in the Bible, why mandate it for priests?

[jeepnut]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Just to clarify, I never thought that celibacy led to pedophilia, only that it would attract those looking for a religious cure. The John Jay study is interesting, but it only compares priests against the general population. I would like to see a study against the rates of clergy from other religions that allow marriage.

But moreso, if celibacy isn't called for in the Bible, why mandate it for priests?

Yes, I realized the true focus of your question after my long response, but decided to keep it because it was worthwhile information.

Finding statistics on non-celibate clergy has been difficult. I've only found one source of information. link That article quotes a study by Penn State (ironic) professor Phillip Jenkins title Pedophiles and Priests in which pedophile rates among Catholic priests are placed at between 0.2 and 1.7 percent and among protestant clergy it is placed at between 2 and 3 percent.

The basic truth is that few have looked at the issue with any real scholarly intent and therefore, little exists in the way of solid statistical evidence. I've only found two scholarly studies on Catholic Priests and almost nothing on other denominations. The nature of the Protestant church makes this difficult. There are 40,000+ Protestant denominations and the decentralized nature makes it difficult to compare across denominations. The link I posted in my previous post from Wikipedia even makes it clear that we have little understanding of the issue at large even amongst the general population.

The simplest answer to why priests are called to be celibate is that priests are called to be fathers to all the faithful and not just biologically related offspring. The Church futher emphasizes this by statingthat a priest marries the Church through his priestly vows. It is a devotion to the Church that is akin to a husband's devotion to his wife.

It has a practical aspect as well, priests make around $25,000 to $30,000 and according to some sources, much less. You would have a difficult time raising a family on that. In addition, who pays to send any children to a Catholic school or other expenses related to raising a family?

The Catholic priest is called to focus on the faithful as his family.

[jeepnut]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Considering the trouble the church has had with priests molesting children, should the marriage ban be removed? The bible does not call for it, and it seems exclude those would otherwise consider being a priest while attracting people that are running from their perverse sexual impulses and hoping priesthood would cure them.

First let me say this; the fact that there were priests who took advantage of their position to abuse children sexually is deplorable, should never have happened, and any priest that is found guilty should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Okay, that being said, let's look at what were actually saying here.

No, I do not think the marriage ban should be removed. Your statement is a common one and is a result of the inaccurate coverage of the sex abuse scandal by the media. However, this statement is based off of two assumptions that statistics tell us are false.

The first assumption is that since priests are celibate, they must have no outlet for their sexual desires and they in turn look for whatever they can conviently find to satisfy their urges. The main reason this assumption falls apart is the simple fact that Catholic priests have a similar to significantly lower incidence of pedophilia than the general population. link link. Logic would tell us that if celibacy drives priests to pedophilia, then there should be a significantly higher incidence among priests. Reality tells us this is simply not the case.

The second assumption flows from the first. We've already observed that celibacy does not increase the rate of pedophilia. So the second assumption is that marriage will help cure those attracted to pedophilia. Sadly, this is also not true. With few exceptions, pedophiles do not abuse children because they don't have an outlet for their sexual desires. They practice pedophilia because they have a psychological attraction to children. Marriage does not cure this as it does not simply flow from a need for sexual intimacy, but a disordered desire for sexual intimacy for children.

Put simply, celibacy is not the issue because celibacy has no correlation with pedophilia. Priests who can't deal with being celibate, leave the priesthood and have normal relationships with consenting adults.

Now the statement that pedophiles are running to the priesthood to be "cured", doesn't make sense either. As we saw above, priests abuse at a similar to significantly lower rate than the general population.

[jeepnut]

Originally Posted by Combine 017

Well thats good. Who are the ones that dont think dinosaurs existed? I dont really know the difference between Catholic and the other Christian or whatever religions.

In my understanding, mostly fundamentalist Protestants who are Bible literalists and use the Bible as the only source of authority.