Word: priesthood
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...than Christianity, starting with hermits and ascetics who alienated themselves from society and thought they could become closer to divinity by eschewing sex. It was hundreds of years later, with the rise of monasteries and convents, that the Catholic Church made celibacy an official doctrine and requirement for the priesthood and for nuns. Since those far-off days the doctrine has led to all kinds of secret sins being committed by the priesthood, usually against adults, but also against children. Instead of the Pope making heart-rending apologies for the crimes of priests, he should be having a good hard...
...than Christianity, starting with hermits and ascetics who alienated themselves from society and thought they could become closer to divinity by eschewing sex. It was hundreds of years later, with the rise of monasteries and convents, that the Catholic Church made celibacy an official doctrine and requirement for the priesthood and for nuns. Since those far-off days the doctrine has led to all kinds of secret sins being committed by the priesthood, usually against adults, but also against children. Instead of the Pope making heart-rending apologies for the crimes of priests, he should be having a good hard...
...hate the fact that it takes a scandal like this to see the forest of religion from the trees of the church. But if Catholics are tired of their church embarrassing their religion, then they've got to quit indulging the priesthood's belief that its earthly power somehow matters as much as Jesus' teachings - one of the most important of which is that earthly power isn't what matters. Just as "packages, boxes or bags" didn't matter that much to the Whos. Dr. Seuss knew better. So should...
...started in late January, when the rector of Canisius College in Berlin admitted there had been at least 50 alleged cases of sexual abuse at the élite Jesuit high school in the 1970s and '80s. The charges came as a surprise; Catholics in mainland Europe rarely challenge the priesthood. "The church was always more tightly controlled in Europe," says Gibson. "There's not the same kind of legal and journalistic advocacy as in the U.S." But the Canisius College scandal opened the floodgates; with at least 300 allegations of abuse, it's now estimated that two-thirds of Germany...
...scandals have multiplied, so too have calls for profound change in the priesthood. One perennial proposal dusted off in recent weeks is the abolition of celibacy among priests: commentators in Germany and Italy have suggested it may help prevent abuse. Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has called for a thoroughgoing review of the causes of abuse, writing, "Part of it is the question of celibacy." That sort of questioning is now taking place even in Benedict's former archdiocese. "Married priests should be accepted in the Catholic Church," says Rainer Schiessler, a priest at Munich's St. Maximilian...