Alydar

No, suppression of sexuality does not cause pedophelia. The reason pedophelia is rampant among priests is that there is the very real possibility of getting away with it (sexual gratification).

scisyhp

Parhaps... from my understanding, when a person suppresses their sexual urges, they may cause themselfs psychological problems, which may come out in weird sexual ways such as pedophilia, or homosexuality, of course it is mostly genetic based, but there is always an aspect of psychological cause and choice.

Alydar

Dude, being isolated with those of the same sex has nothing to do with sexual orientation!

What is your "comparitively high" number of priests statement based upon? In a four year period, I was exposed to hundreds of Catholic priests whom I came to know at a superficial level if not intimately. 5-10% is WAY low!

Alydar

Take your pick on a trustworthy source:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=ut...0gay%20priests

Cheers!

Dale

WCH

It has this to do with it: that those who are gay will be more likely to choose such a vocation.

Remember, Catholic priests must be celibate. Most people don't want to be celibate. Therefore, the clergy appeals most to those few for whom marriage is a less attractive option. This includes asexuals, closeted homosexuals, the impotent and the just plain ugly. If you either don't want a wife, or know you wouldn't be able to get a wife anyway, being a priest doesn't seem that bad anymore.

What the statistic actually is I have no idea, but I would be willing to bet that any state of being which reduces one's likelihood to marry will be more common among Catholic priests than among the general population. Homosexuality just happens to be such a thing.

cajela

You know, not all priests are celibate. Catholics are, but Anglicans are usually married. So are rabbis and imams, iirc.

Are any others celibate??

ahappyheretic

Not all Catholics either. In the Eastern Rite married men can be ordained

general_koffi

They're not Roman Catholic, though. That's Eastern Orthodoxy - they split in the 12th Century, or something.

I think this thread probably pertains mainly to Roman Catholics... They're the only major denomination which requires celibacy, afaik.

It's probably quite high. I think something had to spark off Pope Ratty's inquisition against gays in the priesthood to begin with...

schu

How do you know this?

I think imprinting on adolescence is a large part of homosexuality. Some people are born homosexual either from natal hormonal baths or genes, but others become homosexual from imprinting.

The imprinting is caused by associating with the same gender durning adolescence. Think Brits with the Arab boys. The Brits came up in boarding schools with no girls while the Arab culture keeps the boys away from the girls durning adolescence. When the British Foreign Service officers meet the boys of Arabia they thought they were in heaven.

I think Gore Vidal in his bio. suggested this happend with rich kids in boarding schools. He should know. This probably accounts for most bisexualism too.

schu

cel·i·ba·cy (sµl“…-b…-s¶) n. 1. Abstinence from sexual intercourse, especially by reason of religious vows. 2. The condition of being unmarried.

I think the Catholic priests only consider celibacy as the second definition and ignore the first. They hope and encourage lay people to think it is the first definiton except when they are hitting on young women. They then claim celibacy only has to do with not being married as they try to get in their pants.

Some of the priest may be atheists or just believe that god will forgive anything that they will do thus having sex with children is no big deal. It takes one self centered son of a bitch to believe they aren't hurting the children. These SOBs need to put in prisions where they can be someones bitch for a good long time.