I agree wholeheartedly. I have always believed that both the dearth of Catholic priest candidates and the rampant homosexuality in the priesthood would be instantly solved if the church would cast-off it´s antiquated and unnecessary celibacy requirement.
I´ll get flamed here by the "purists" who think there´s good reasons for it, but to them I say the same thing I say to liberals: it´s been your way forever and things are a disgusting mess. When will you capitulate?

Excellent HIT piece on Roman Catholicism.

#2, truth can be painful.

I´m confused
Homosexual priests = bad
Homosexual scout masters = good

When cool guys like Sam Adams, ex Mayor of Portland, have little flings with underage teenager boys it is no problem. When men like George Harasz and Doug Wirth sexually abuse the boys given to them by the Government no one cares.

But honestly it is good that the Church is held to a higher standard - it is proof that people still realize what the Church actually is.

Obviously the author brings her extensive knowledge of canon law with her well researched and thorough understanding of the Church as an institution as she makes drive by assessments of the situation.

As to the ongoing problem---- when was the last reported incident? These are not new problems because they have been addressed by again screening at the seminary level over the past two decades.

The lavender mafias have been replaced, culminating perhaps with Mahoney in LA, a liberal favorite, but the Bernadines and Weaklands have been replaced.

Replacing them and allowing local bishops to "decommission" as it were, errant priests was a cumbersome process both in local diocese and in Rome. Ratzinger in fact spearheaded the necessary steps both requiring Bishops to inform Rome and making it easier to "defrock" bad priests and show them the door.

So I´m sure among the NPR crowd this sounds like the usual informed smug antiCatholic "truth". In fact it shows the ignorance and intellectual laziness of someone who hasn´t paid attention to the work of Ratzinger.
Birds fly, fish swim, bigots bigot.

#2 and 7 are both correct.

I hear you #7. The media will always report that the Catholic Church is under crisis. They will not let this decades old issue to go away.

I find it hard to believe that this reporter can not figure out that Pope Benedict is old, ill and can not fully carry out his duties. Which is why he stepped aside.

Did it ever occur to Nimrod Diane, and the other like-minded posters, that the problem is really in perception?
Yes, the Catholic Church has had its pedophilia scandals, but in truth the incidence of such was no greater than in public schools, organizations, and institutions on a per capita basis. And every religion has had it too. Just last month a Jewish rabbi was convicted in NYC of molesting young girls.
THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE is that sex scandals within the Catholic Church are gleefully covered on page 1 of the leftist rags, and are headline news on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN.
I personally can recall reading stories (usually page A-19 or after) about pedophiles in public schools in CA, FL, KY, PA, NY, etc., pedophiles in protestant churches, pedophiles in islamic madrases.
What we are reacting to is a problem that is greatly enhanced and publicized by the yellow journalists because of their deep-seated hatred of the Catholic Church and all it stands for. Why? The Catholic Church is opposed to artificial birth control, abortion, and homosexuality, which it considers sins--even while the Left considers them virtues.

The apostle Peter was married. Also read 1 Timothy 4:3.

How did the Catholic Church ever survive for 2000 years without Diane to tell it what to do?? /s

and who better to write a piece than an anti-American, dyed in the wool non-religious jewish communist..
go check out the teecherz and homosexuals in the publik skools and give us something NEW from the MSM..

The majority of abuse cases, decades old, involved homosexual males and adolescent boys which is NOT pedophilia. Allowing priests to be married is totally irrelevant to this issue. While the way these cases were handled can certainly be debated, much of what was done was based on the recommendations from the mental health experts at the time.
Sadly, all of this is of no importance to those who need to find any reason to attack the Church.

#&, I must borrow your wonderful line, "Birds fly, fish swim, bigots bigot."
Thank you for that.

Need coffee....I meant #7.

More nonsense from the peanut gallery!

Sorry but the Catholic Church has been a corrupted organization since Christ was crucified. Things changed with the Apostle Paul as scripture tells us. No one needs to go thru a Pope or anyone else. The Catholic Church has simply tried to perpetuate a power structure for the sake of power itself. It´s no wonder it has crumbled under its own weight. Man is a fallen creature whether you be a priest, a Pope or a homeless vagabound. The wearing of flowing robes, pointy hats and swinging a smoking lamp might make you feel religious but don´t expect God to look upon it with any favor. Read the Bible and "rightly divide" it; it will set you free.

There is nothing about Homosexuality that is right. Their strident intent is to change the world. " Misery loves company". Just look what is has done to the church and continues to do today.

"the rampant homosexuality in the priesthood would be instantly solved if the church would cast-off it´s antiquated and unnecessary celibacy requirement"

Because having sex at will cures homosexuality, right #1? Got it. Brilliant. Too bad those married Protestant ministers on the down low didn´t get the memo.

If you read the end of Matthew, John 20, the end of Mark... Jesus always delegates His authority to his disciples. In the modern world, we give powers of attorney or letters of authority; anyone reading those passages in the light of the legal practices of the time would realize that Jesus was...

...instituting the church. To those of you brought up in denominations that had to justify their split with Catholicism, my apologies..

One other thing: anyone here ever see the play, The Crucible? What happens when the legal system institutes ´damned if you do/damned if you don´t´ rules? You get convictions. With all the money that could be legally extorted from the Church using the "recovered memory" precedents, you can´t see that a lot of the allegations were the crime?

Aside from that, let me know if any of the news media are entitled to cast the first stone.

All the "reports" in the world do not a reality make (I should know; I work for the federal government). The Catholic Church has been under attack ever since Herod gave the order to have the babies murdered. (Hm, guess Roe v Wade wasn´t breaking any new ground there.)

However, Jesus promised Peter that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church." Well, to paraphrase the old song, Obama may reign, but... I´ll follow the Son.

Check out Michael Rose´ " Goodbye, Good Men" and you will get a whole different take on what liberalism´s plan is for the Catholic church as well as any religion that doesn´t bow to gay marriage and other tenets of the left.

I, too, think this resignation has to do with the scandals.

Seems the Pope is considered infallible ONLY when he is talking to the people in the pews. Otherwise, the church heirarchy has the last word on whether to clean up this mess.

Thanks #10. #18, I guess you missed the "bigots bigot" allusion or you just went ahead and did it anyway.

#24, contrary to non-Catholic (and poorly catecheted Catholic) opinion, papal infallibility applies ONLY when the Pope definitively declares that some doctrine on faith must be held by the whole Church.

To date, papal infallibility has been invoked exactly twice in Christian history: the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.

#26... I humbly stand corrected.

That´s it. I´m converting from Catholicism to Islam. No issues with little boys there, or we´d be hearing about that ad nauseum too. Right?

The percentage of priests who have had "sex" with adolescent boys is below other measured or measurable group. This is even in spite of the homo influx that happened to seminaries in the 1970s. In the ´70s the hierarchy swallowed the lies that individuals with same-sex attraction could be celibate. Now we see that such "good thinking" seems in error.

The media used "pedophilia" incorrectly when blasting headlines against the Church. The acts are almost always homosexual and, note, almost always 30 to 40 years in the past.

So, if the Church would relax its stance on priestly celibacy, we wouldn´t have priests having sex with young men and boys. Interesting thought. Did the previous poster mean the Church should allow these men to marry other men? Because I don´t think marrying a woman is going to solve a homosexual/pedophile problem (that is, a sinful problem) in these men.
Sounds like the wife who wants the Church to allow polygamy, then her husband wouldn´t cheat on her.
Goodbye Good Men is an excellent book.

LOL, #21 must have missed #7´s great line......."Birds fly, fish swim, bigots bigot."

Broken link? Article is not there.