Those familiar with history know that the Catholic Church is no stranger to scandals. The latest scandals involve sexual abuse and other sexual scandals with the church.
While some might be inclined to argue that this tendency towards abuse results from the religion itself, this does not seem to be the case. The actual doctrines of the church seem to be rather against this sort of behavior (after all, the Catholic Church relentlessly condemns homosexuality). Also, there seems to be no causal connection between the religious impulse and the tendency to engage is such evil behavior. After all, most people are (or claim to be) religious and most people do not engage in such behavior. While this does not conclusively show that there is not a causal connection, it does indicate that if there is any connection, then it is a rather weak one.
Given that the Catholic Church demands abstinence on the part of the priests, it might be argued that this has a role in these scandals. This does have some plausibility. However, this does not seem to be a complete explanation. After all, other groups practice abstinence and yet do not suffer the same sort of scandals.
It might be the case that it is not something about the church that causes the behavior, but rather that the church attracts people with those tendencies. It has been suggested that since the church provides excellent cover for such behavior, it tends to attract people who will engage in such abuse. The church has been rather slow to deal with the problem and its actions have been rather limited. As such, people who are inclined to inflict such abuse might be drawn to the church because of the cover and protection it provides.
Also, the fact that the church provides such cover and protection might serve to encourage people with such tendencies to act upon them. After all, if a person knows that he will be able to act on his impulses with impunity, then this removes a major reason not to act upon these impulses.
The church clearly needs to remove the cover and protection it provides for such abuse and abusers. However, there seems to be little will on the part of the top hierarchy to do so and this raises serious questions about their moral integrity and values.
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The requirement that Catholic priests take an oath of celibacy should be removed. It’s not Biblical–it’s personal. It causes too many problems and it’s shaming Christianity, because it’s an artificial, man-made requirement that I simply can’t find endorsed in the Bible.
The celibacy part might be a factor. Perhaps since they cannot have open sexual relationships (that is, date women), some of them turn to activities that they think they can conceal (that is, abusing children). Or perhaps the people who are willing to accept celibacy (relative to woman) are more inclined to behave in that way.
I agree with your last three paragraphs. And it would be interesting to do a study of the offending priests to determine if any had themselves been molested by priests who moved on unpunished to another diocese.
Good point. The abused sometimes go on to become abusers themselves.