Does celibacy induce pedophilia? No, it does not. However, manyhave been asking this question of the Catholic church in response torecent allegations of child abuse.
Accordingto MSNBC, more than 10 percent of the priests in the archdiocese ofBoston have been accused of pedophilia. One of these priests, JohnGeoghan, was accused of molesting more than 130 children. A RomanCatholic bishop in Palm Beach, Anthony J. O’Connell, was defrockedfor molesting a teenager. Ironically, he replaced former bishop J.Keith Symons, who was forced to resign in 1999 for, you guessed it,molesting young boys. According to The Washington Post, more than 25priests have been defrocked for molestation charges since O’Connell.
One can’t deny that pedophiles exist in the church — theseallegations didn’t fall out of the sky. The question is, how do thesepedophiles become priests, and why? The answer, most believe, iseither that forcing priests to be celibate makes them pedophiles, orthat pedophiles are attracted to the priesthood.
The argument that celibacy instigates pedophilia is completelyridiculous. In order to believe this claim, one would have to agreethat a man who denies himself sexual gratification would, over time,change his sexual desires and become attracted to little children.Ask yourself this — If you stopped having sex for a year, would yougradually find yourself lusting after kids? Of course you wouldn’t.This is a bizarre argument that puts a shockingly low amount of faithin human nature. It suggests that normal, healthy people are capableof perverse child abuse, and that simply is not true.
However, the argument that pedophiles are attracted to thepriesthood is not so crazy. A Catholic man attracted to children mayattempt to run away from his problem by becoming a priest, thinkinghe can escape sexuality altogether. Unfortunately, becoming a holyman doesn’t make his sick urges go away. Alternatively, a Catholicman attracted to children may join the priesthood because he knows hewill have close contact with children regularly, and be given lots oftrust. Either of these scenarios brings pedophiles into the Catholicchurch, where they can hurt young children.
The church should screen for these people. However, littlestatistical research has been done — by the church or anyone else.No one is looking into the problem. It remains a secret kept behindclosed doors, a skeleton in the papal closet.
Why isn’t this being researched? Why isn’t the Catholic churchinvestigating the issue? Of course, I can’t say for sure, but I knowthat men aren’t exactly enlisting for the priesthood in droves thesedays. The church needs priests, and they have to take what they canget. According to The Washington Post, “many priests-in-training seemto be years beyond their age intellectually and years behind inpsychosexual development.” The priests who apply for the job tend tobe sexually immature, but with only 40,000 active priests in theUnited States, the church can’t afford to be picky. A cardinal inBoston actually knew about Geoghan’s behavior, yet left himunpunished for more than a decade. Church officials know the problemexists, but they’re ignoring it.
The church can’t afford to ignore the problem any longer. They’vealready lost credibility with the recent cases brought againstpriests. No, the church does not need to change their policy oncelibacy, because celibacy doesn’t create pedophiles. However, theyneed to screen their applicants. They need to perform psychologicalexams on prospective priests before they are ordained. The churchneeds to work harder to keep pedophiles out. With the amount of trusta priest is given, and the access to children he has, it isimperative that more be done to rid the priesthood of childmolesters.
–Rebecca Martin is a journalism sophomore.
–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com.Anonymous letters will not be printed — include your full name,major and year in school.
