Should priest be allowed to marry, to prevent child abuse?
I was received into the Catholic Church when my parish church was still a Benedictine Mission from Douai, in Northern France, near to where my first girlfriend came from. I have always found Irish Catholicism rather stuffy, narrow-minded and Jesus-centred, rather than founded on thoughtfulness and application to the spiritual issues we find today. The schism within the Church of England over women priests and bishops has created a number of married priests entering the Roman Catholic church. I do think priests should be allowed to marry. I find it rather sad and unhealthy that a spiritual leader must guide parishioners on the joys of marriage, without ever himself being allowed to experience this. It is truly dreadful that their sexual frustration must express itself on children in their care, rather than on grown women openly and willing to share themselves in marriage. St Paul goes into this in some detail: “Yes, it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman; but since sex is alw
