Methinks the laddy doth protest too much.

I'm no Catholic. I was raised in one of the many Protestant denominations in the nation, left the church I was born in, and kind of have been searching since. I settled with the Anglican church, a few years ago; however, I'm no happier with some of their views. Like their views on gay clergy. Or on their leftist-leaning hierarchy.

I do respect the Catholic church. I understand some of the reasoning behind some of the doctrine--especially behind the anti-abortion, and kinda sorta behind the anti-contraception (used as such--however, when contraception is used to treat conditions like PCOS and endometriosis, and certain practitioners are still against it, that's where a line between principle and unthinking dogma is crossed). Abortion kills an unborn life, contraception takes much of the timing out of God's hands and puts it in mortal hands (which invariably muck it up).

I will admit that I'm not big on the whole celibacy thing. I can kinda sorta understand why, according to what I've read about Catholicism in my search, the vow is there. I still don't agree with it, any more than I agree with gay clergy. I mean, first of all, how in the world is an unmarried priest who may have never even been in a relationship supposed to give credible marital advice? Married clergy do better, for the most part, because they understand on a gut level what kinds of issues couples face. All the theory in the world does not make up for a lack of practical application.

I do not, however, fault the vow of celibacy for the pedophilia in the church.

I can see where there might be a correlation: good young Catholic boy wakes up one morning, and realizes he might have an inappropriate sexual orientation (like toward someone of his own sex. Or toward those who are really pre-pubescent). Like any other good, God-fearing (and God-loving) young man, he's horrified. He doesn't want to be gay, or a pedophile, doesn't want to admit that he might be, so he tries to ignore the problem in the hopes that it goes away. Unfortunately for our young Christian, it doesn't. Our young Catholic believes God has given him this burden as a cross to bear, and thinks that, with the vow of celibacy, he won't have to think about it. That inappropriate, unacceptable desire will be gone.

Too bad for our young pervert that God doesn't like it when we run from the challenges he's placed before us rather than trying to deal with it or overcome it with his help.

I don't think that, if the Priest is supposed to symbolize Christ's role as bridegroom with the Church in the role of bride, allowing them to follow in the footsteps of the Anglican church with regards to sex is necessarily (or even at all) a good thing.