They could just ordain women. Likely to be a much smaller problem then…
Getting rid of the celibacy requirement doesn’t get rid of pedophile priests; it only dilutes them with non-pedophiles.
Consider the guy who thinks he might have a priestly vocation. If he has normal sexual desires, he might decide that he marry a woman, have sex and be a faithful lay Catholic. So choosing celibacy might be a difficult choice for him.
Consider the guy not attracted to women or even to adult men, but to children, and who thinks he might have a priestly vocation. He can’t have sex with children and be a faithful lay Catholic. Celibacy doesn’t look like a bad choice to him. He knows he must not have sex with children, and doesn’t want to have sex with adults, anyway. He knows he has to remain celibate anyway, priest or not. He doesn’t have that particular reason NOT to be a priest.
We don’t need to postulate that pedophile priests joined the priesthood in order to molest children. All we have to believe is that they didn’t NOT become priests, whereas some men with normal desires did not become priests.
If the celibacy requirement was removed, that wouldn’t make potential pedophiles less likely to become priests. The real answer is to root out pedophiles and make it more difficult for priests to molest children, just as the Boy Scouts made it more difficult for adults to molest boys.
Said more simply. Pedophiles don’t lose their desire to have sex with children by being married or having sex with adults. Example: the Subway guy.
They don’t lose their desire to have sex with children by becoming priests when priests are not required to be celibate, either. Whether the pedophile priest marries an adult or doesn’t, he still has desires to have sex with children.
No pedophile is going to refrain from becoming a priest because priests are allowed to marry.
I don’t think it has been established that the issue is attributable solely to pedophilia. In fact if I recall correctly the John Jay study concluded that 77 % of the approximately 11,000 victims they looked at were not pre-pubescent children. They were over the age of 11.
My belief is that if you cut off the possibility and availability of physical intimacy to a large group of young men entering the priesthood you are going to have problems. Adding women and the ability to marry into the equation can only improve the situation.
She raped a 12 year old. I’m not aware of anyone fired by their board who raped a 12 year old, and if there were such a case I would be shocked to hear anyone defending them.
The Letourneau case is so atypical that it’s difficult to use it as a comparison. They are still legally married today and have raised a family together. Despite those facts I will still say that what she did was morally corrupt and criminal. I think she got off easy with the first jail sentence and the second was well deserved. But reverse the situation and have the 13 year old victim be a girl and you will have posters on this very board contend that 13 year olds today are more sexually aware/active and know exactly what they are doing when they engage with older males.
Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Owen Labrie and Roy Moore also have their fair share of supporters. So do a lot of Catholic priests. While the Allen and Moore cases are currently mere allegations, even in the hypothetical people jumped through hoops to justify the behavior invoking biblical references to underage relationships.
So yes I do perceive different standards of judgment.
Polanski had to flee the country to avoid prosecution. The US even tried, but failed, to have him extradited, so I don’t see how that supports your point. Should we have sent a blacks op team after him for an extraordinary rendition? I don’t know all the details of the Woody Allen case, but a Yale-New Haven hospital investigation concluded no sexual abuse took place. I don’t know what fringe you’re reading, but none of the media I’ve seen from the WSJ/Fox to CNN is apologizing for the Catholic priests. Owen Labrie had a three year age difference. In Roy Moores case the allegations were made long after the statute of limitations had run out, and there were disputes about the factual allegations.
So Asia Argento is now saying Anthony Bourdain paid off her accuser. This story is stranger by the day. I don’t believe her. Why did it take so long to say this?
@roethlisburger that report you mentioned about Woody Allen was deemed not credible by a judge. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/02/woody-allen-sex-abuse-10-facts/amp
"Owen Labrie had a three year age difference. "
And this is a prime example of an excuse… 
Dragging Bourdain into this is pretty low IMO.
Nuff said.
Can we estimate how much married clergy matter? I don’t know if anyone has tried to measure the scale of abuse in the Catholic church vs. other patriarchal, hierarchical religious groups that have married clergy (Mormons, Orthodox Jews, etc.). Those groups certainly have abuse problems and cover-up problems; but are they as bad as Catholicism on this score?
Women commit less violence than men. That seems to be true in every human society that’s ever been studied. So from a population standpoint, you have safer kids when more women are in charge of them.
Who took this picture?
That seems bad for Argento.
I was listening to a Vox podcast about the decades of abuse and cover-ups in Pennsylvania. It’s the podcast Today, Explained and the episode is from this past Thursday “Saw Something, Said Nothing”. Very emotional to listen to the victims – I mean, your heart breaks and you feel FURIOUS all at the same time.
Update on the infamous USA Gymnastics doc:
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/ex-sports-doctor-nassar-moved-to-another-prison-facility/
As pretty much expected.
The former head of the CDC has been arrested for groping. Even the highly educated do really stupid things.
Paris Dennard who is a frequent guest on CNN has been suspended for prior behavior.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/23/media/paris-dennard-allegations-cnn/index.html