Letter: Priests, not doctrine, to blame for scandals

Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

Regarding John Tominsky's Feb. 8 letter, "Celibacy for priests should be ended":

No one has a "right" to be a Catholic priest and no one is forced to become one or take the vows required. Celibacy has served the church well, as the church is truly the "Bride of Christ," and the priest, as an alter Christus, or "other Christ," is married to the church.

Protestant ministers have been in just as many sex scandals as Catholic priests, although the media do not like to notice them. The old joke about "the preacher's kids" being badly behaved is rooted in reality: Serious full-time ministers have a job so all-encompassing that it is impossible to give proper time and attention to their families.

Likewise, a Catholic priest is unencumbered by a family and can give himself fully to his bride, the church. Any priest who is truly doing his job has no time for a wife or children.

Mr. Tominsky says that priests are "forced" not to have "normal feelings." Absurd. He mistakenly assumes that all humans are entitled to sex. If Tominsky honestly embraces his Catholic faith, then he must admit that sex is for married people who plan on raising children.

If he is embarrassed by the scandals, then he should read the John Jay Report, which proves that the majority of sex abuse scandals involved priests and adolescent males - that's homosexuality, not suppressed feelings. If he read Michael Rose's bestseller, "Goodbye, Good Men," he would find that the majority of these kinds of priests come from dioceses that no longer embrace the teachings of the church. If Mr. Tominsky is embarrassed to be a Catholic, he should join me in demanding that our bishops and priests deliver us authentic Catholic teaching and live their faith. Selling out to the human sex drive will not improve the Catholic Church.

Jim Behrendt, Henderson

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