Is the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests the root cause of pedophilia and other deviant behavior?
No, it’s not the root cause for the behavior, but it doesn’t help matters. Historically, at least where Christianity has been concerned, any sort of deviation from the “sexual norm” has been looked upon as abominable and the people who have such desires as detestable and immoral. I’m not going to argue the pros and cons of that as it comes to individual groups, but it does have a curious effect when mixed with an expectation of celibacy. Put simply, the Catholic church does not expect heterosexual people to be celibate. Far from it, the church encourages its members to form romantic relationships they would find meaningful and engage in the very behaviors that bring them pleasure and fulfillment… i.e. it tells straight people to find a mate the church finds acceptable, and f**k to your heart’s content. Others, though, the church declares should spend their lives without sex anyway. As that’s the case, the requirement for those who are not romantically attracted to what’s considered n
