[FireFly]

Don't get me wrong, the Catholic church does a lot of good, I'm not saying they don't. But their rule about celibacy is outdated. In today's world, we are surrounded with sexual images. They're on everything. It doesn't matter if a person is a priest or not, everyone has to be affected by the images in advertising. The world has become sexualized, and the Catholic church has not budged on its stance for how many years? It's not the Catholic churchs fault obviously, but you can't expect every one of your priests to abstain. It's not realistic. Why can't there be marriage? If you get married, you can still be a pastor but not a Bishop perhaps, or something else.... it's an idea, and one that would hopefully allow the Catholic church to avoid this type of situation in the future.

I also realize it is difficult for a person to become a pastor, my uncle is one. It's not an easy process, and they do a lot of screening and such. However, if some freak is crazy enough, and thinks the advantages are great enough, they MAY decide to go into just such a field. Again, I'm not saying the church purposely hires pervs. I wasn't bashing the church like that, you don't know me, so try to read less into my posts than that. What I was saying is that there are sickos who would do just that. Again, that's not the churchs fault.

To summarize, the Catholic church should update it's marriage rules. Allow pastors to marry and you won't have so many issues. Put all the restrictions on it you want. Ensure that if your pastors do marry, they cannot go above a certain title or whatever.

As for the 'its about power argument' I also get that. However, I highly doubt these priests are pointing guns at these children. What then would satisfy their lust for power if not fear? Trust, and sexual trust. You can get that from a wife too. A man can have a form of power over his wife as well, especially if they are devout Catholics.