In view of the widespread abuse of children by Catholic priests around the world & the subsequent covering up of these crimes, even by the Pope himself, isn't it time the unnatural practice of celibacy was abandoned?

Thought about the rope cure? Well maybe just for persistent offenders then, but once again, it would be the ultimate deterrent, i know, i know, dont tell me, if we topped them it would be like giving them promotion, well it would wouldn't it.

Celibacy is not the problem regarding child abuse, even if they were allowed to marry or have girl friends it would not cure the problem of child molesting in any way Those who fancy women would be better off that's for sure, the Catholic church is certainly not going to allow their batty boys to get married are they? Not till hell freezers over at least. But kiddy fiddlers are kiddy fiddlers and will always be kiddy fiddlers, because its children that attract them, not adults. So how would ending celibacy help the children and cure the problem?

Celebacy was originally devised to keep more money within the Catholic church, if the priests were married, they would leave all their cash to their family, if they have no family, who are they going to leave their cash to? The church who else. So ending celibacy is definitely not the answer.

What is the answer? A strong deterrent, it is the only way, a deterrent that frightens the life out of potential child molesters and puts convicted clerical kiddy fiddlers in prison for life, life meaning life as a minimum, where they could minister to those who most need there ministering most. And in return the convicts would help to cure the clerical child abuser's, we all know what happens to child molesters in prisons, don't we.

Is there any one who thinks that ending celibacy will help anything? In fact the ways things are going, does any one really care one way are the other.

I think enforced celibacy could & does strange things to a man. Take prison for example, it's fairly well accepted that male on male sex is quite common. If you take women & men out of the equation, then some men will inevitably look to another way to relieve their frustrations.

If that is the case, a discount card for the nearest brothel would sort the problem permanently, well worth the public expense i would have thought, its almost a certainty the church would not foot the bill for it, or at least not voluntarily.

So if the government was to put brothels on the NHS as a cure for paedophilia, would you support the idea?

A Catholic priest is supposed to be celibate & that includes going to a brothel, gay sex & paedophilia. In my opinion it's just not natural for a man to be celibate & must have effects on his mind.

I would agree, i rather think the same, to have sex is natural, so not to have sex has to have some effect on people who abstain. Although by the same token, if a priest is desperate for sex, he could just as easily nip off to a brothel and have it away there, instead of molesting kiddies. He could also have a girl friend on the qt and that harms no one at all, What the popes eyes don't see, the popes heart don't grieve.

From that, by extension, it would appear that there are other less harmful options for the abstaining priests, so why pick on kiddies? It still looks to me that paedophiles in general, are attracted to kiddies and not adult women. The question is still there to be answered i rather think, wouldn't you agree?

Is there any evidence of a link between celibacy and peadophilia? Do you have any evidence that the priests were celibate and were not for example paying prostitutes (male and female) and engaging in S & M and all kinds of stuff?

I think whether or not someone is celibate should be up to them.

Is Cliff Richard more likely to be a peadophile than Bono?