[Erin] As Mark Shea would put it...

I'm not aware of any serious argument suggesting that, by itself, heterosexual activity cures or discourages the cultivation of sexual deviancy.

What people do criticize, and with no little evidence, is that many parish priests live in unhealthy psychological situations, especially if they have a proclivity to addiction. Some priests, simply put, should not live alone.

Celibacy, as it was conceived, and as it is healthily lived out in the Christian tradition, is a virtue shared in a community setting. It's still not perfect, but if it's a virtue worth preserving one would think of giving it every chance it could get.

Optional celibacy for diocesan clergy is an issue worth discussing outside of the issue of sexual predation or addiction. What is worth discussing are the impoverished lifestyles of priests, looking at what feeds into addictive tendencies. Also worth a discussion is creating a culture of support among brother clergy and with laity. Waiting to ordain seminarians until they are thirty-five, forty and have developed a certain maturity might be a consideration, too.

I think a cultural reformation is necessary for that; for now, it would seem that parental vigilance is the best weapon against child predators.

Unless the parents themselves happen to be the predators ...

I am a bit cynical with calling a 16 year old a "child". Most 16 year olds today are taller than the average 50 year old counterpart. A century ago this 16 year old "child" would be married or about to be married, but today that idea is unreasonable and ludicrous. And this is part of the problem. The age of consent is arbitrary but I know it has to be some number. If it is 14 we get too much damage to the young; if it is 18 we get too many cases that we want to over look because we will jail too many young adults. I say 16 is about right but I do not really like that either, but it is what we should try to live with.

I am in favor of priest celibacy but I know the old system of men entering the minor seminary as a young teen and then becoming ordained 10 years is unrealistic in our sex-saturated culture. Even the major seminary starting at 18 is a streatch.

And although I am in favor of celibacy basically, I can see having some of the married "permanent" deacons, after age of 45 migrating over to the priesthood as a stop gap measure due to current priest shortages for a few decades.

As far a "cultural revolution" to make children (birth to 17?) safe from adults would need to be totalitarian as an attempt and would fail anyway. I am not cynical, just realistic about the nature of people and the presence of evil. Remember, we already tasted the forbidden fruit.

Peace

Erin:

Yes, there is the issue of authority in these matters. And laws and attitudes come into play here, such as psychiatrists and their patients. I suppose we can apply the same logic in our thinking. But a 16 year old is not yet an adult, but an adolescent (meaning "more of an adult") but certainly not a child. The only context that any of us calls a 16 year old a "child" is regarding sexual activity.

The point is that there is no one-size-fits all approach here. I can say that when I was 16 (or even 12) no male teacher, coach, priest, etc was going to sexually abuse me unless I was physically overpowered. And unless the victims were some pathetic emotional cripple, I would say the same for 95% of heterosexual youth. And if they are not, or were not heterosexual youth, maybe we could still call them victims but that may in itself at least streatch, if not abuse the word "victim" a bit.

We don't need an arbitrary age of consent (whatever rational discussion goes towards setting it) to recognize inequalities in relationships. There is a list of descriptives; citing physical strength or intimidation is just one item on that list.

Please allow me to be clear on my position: I do not mean that we should do away with age of consent. I do mean that there should be a strong ethic of protection for those who need it, and one need not know the age of the victim to identify the need for protection.

The only utility in an age of consent is in the legal concept of emancipation, the ability of the person to engage in commerce, contracts and the like without requiring the approval of another person. There are inherent assumptions behind this concept, like literacy, level of education and a general societal concern for the maturity of the individual and the critically important component of experience in attaining maturity. The passage of time by itself doesn't bring maturity, but it surely provides opportunities for experience to provide the needed lessons.