Captain Obvious: Gays Aren't to Blame for Pedophile Priests

Image from source, Huffington Post

Grrrr. Stories like this really tick me off. Quick, if your big brother did something bad, and your Mom asked him who did it, what did he do? He tried to blame it on you, right? That's what the Catholic church is trying to do here.

Listen, I'm no psychologist, and I'm certainly not a Catholic. But I've been around the block enough times to know that pedophilia is a different thing from homosexuality. There are pedophiles who are gay and straight (and some may not identify with either category). And the church's pedophilia scandal may be 70% boys, but what does that leave? Are the girls being mistreated by the nuns?

I'm going to try to make a brief case here, see if this makes sense to you.

1) Catholic Priests must be celibate. If a guy is celibate a long time, his sexuality (whatever it is) may be expressed in inappropriate ways. I'd venture to say that a Priest so inclined would have more opportunities with boys than girls, though--again, not Catholic--I can't be 100% sure of that. This would not necessarily--strictly speaking--make the offender gay, any more than most men in prison who engage in same-sex behavior. He might be, he might not be. I suppose you could say--again, strictly speaking--the same offender may not have ever pondered pedophilia if he weren't presented with no other options. On the other hand. . .

2) A man predisposed to pedophilia might very well be attracted to the Priesthood as a way to "straighten" himself out. And then, whoopsie, he finds himself in the perfect position to do the thing he was trying to avoid. Or. . .

3) A man predisposed to pedophilia might very well be attracted to the Priesthood because he knows he will find himself in the perfect position to do the thing he wants to do.

I thought that was obvious.

[Excerpt]

Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican's Number 2: Priest Pedophilia Linked To Homosexuality

The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Thanks to my friend Tracy for the link.