Anyone living in the real world who was raised Catholic ought to realize that the requirement of priestly celibacy played a huge role in the worldwide sex abuse scandal that has wracked the Roman Catholic Church. Between the Church hierarchy's neurotic obsession with sex and all things sexual and the role celibacy played in offering a safe hiding place for the psycho-sexually disturbed products of the Church's teaching on sex, the formula for sexual abuse of children and youths should have been foreseen. Nonetheless, for over a decade, the Vatican has denied that celibacy had any role in the incidence of sexual abuse. Now, an investigation in Australia talks about the elephant in the room. As The Guardian reports, the Church is finally conceding that just maybe, celibacy was the fuse that caused the explosion of abuse. Here are highlights:
Celibacy could have contributed to the instances of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church, a report by the church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council in Australia has found.
The report, released on Friday as a response to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, said “obligatory celibacy” for Catholic priests “may … have contributed to abuse in some circumstances”, and recommended priests undergo “psycho-sexual development” training.
Council CEO Francis Sullivan told Guardian Australia that priests needed to undergo “education” to develop emotional and sexual awareness, “like what you and I do as adults”.
Sullivan said the group was not suggesting abolishing the vow of celibacy, but rather addressing how priests can “keep the integrity of their vows”.
“It’s about learning the risks of blurring the boundaries. Knowing the risks that intimacy can bring,” he said. “We are not talking about lifting the vow of celibacy.”
The report said the church’s response to child sex abuse had been shaped by its culture and “clericalism”, which it defined as an “ordained ministry geared to power over others, not service to others”.
“Church institutions and their leaders, over many decades, seemed to turn a blind eye, either instinctively or deliberately, to the abuse happening within their diocese or religious order, protecting the institution rather than caring for the child,” the report said.
It said the selection process for priests may have contributed to a culture that ignored abuse.
The report also said the council would support a national statutory compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse above providing compensation directly to victims.
“The church should no longer investigate itself. It does not have the trust of victims,” Sullivan said.
As for the recommended "education" and "psycho-sexual" education, what we are really talking about if it is to be effective is years of therapy for priests screwed up by the Church's sexual teachings.
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