By Nick Pisa
March 11, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257175/Cardinal-Schonborn-claims-celibacy-blame-Catholic-sex-abuse-cases.html
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| Controversial views: Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said celibacy was partly to blame for Catholic sex abuse cases |
A leading cardinal today claimed that the sex abuse cases rocking the Roman Catholic Church were due to 'priestly celibacy'.
Calling for a 'change of vision', Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, leader of the Catholic Church in Austria, said the causes of sex abuse by priests could be found in 'priest celibacy' and 'priest training'.
In recent weeks the church has been rocked by a series of abuse scandals in Ireland, Holland and Germany - where Pope Benedict's retired priest brother Georg Ratzinger has admitted to hitting choir boys.
The 65-year-old cardinal, who is tipped to be a future pope, made the shock claims in a religious magazine.
Cardinal Schoenborn said: 'The causes of sex abuse by priests? These need to be found in priest training, as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution of 1968.
'It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development.
'It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole, a change of vision.'
He added: 'Enough is enough. That's what many people are saying and thinking. Enough of the scandals! How is it that members of the Church are constantly made responsible for crimes that we didn't commit?'
Pope Benedict has described abuse of children by priests as a 'heinous crime' and has vowed to tackle the problem urgently and decisively.
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| In recent weeks the church has been rocked by a series of abuse scandals in Ireland, Holland and Germany - where Pope Benedict's retired priest brother Georg Ratzinger has admitted to hitting choir boys |
But despite calls by a number of theologians and lay Catholic organisations to abolish priest celibacy, the Vatican sees the issue as strictly 'non negotiable'.
Cardinal Schoenborn has been leader of the Austrian church for 15 years - since his predecessor, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, was forced to quit after it emerged that he had abused boys.
He has held views seen as radical in the church including advocating the use of condoms and accepting the possibility of evolution.
In 1996, he told an Austrian TV that someone suffering from Aids might use a condom as a 'lesser evil'. But he quickly cautioned: 'No one could affirm that the use of a condom is the ideal in sexual relations.'
During the last few days other alleged cases of sexual and physical abuse by Catholic priests have surfaced in Austria in the boarding school of Mehrerau Abbey.
The issue of celibacy is due to be discussed at a two-day conference hosted by the Vatican's Pontifical Lateran University which is under the control of Pope Benedict XVI.
It is thought that many Catholic priests privately believe a married clergy is the obvious solution to a number of problems confronting the church, from the shortage of priests to the recent sex scandals.
The celibacy rule for priests was not part of the early Christian Church but was introduced in the Middle Ages. A number of early Christian fathers were married, including St Peter himself, according to St Mark's Gospel.
Today there was no official comment from the Vatican on Cardinal Schoenborn's comments.
Hondurian Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, who was attending the conference at the Lateran University, was asked about Cardinal Schoenborn's comments but dismissed them.
He said:'I don't understand how there can be a relation between priestly celibacy and paedophile cases within the Church because abuse also takes place where there is no celibacy.
'The problem is that cases of abuse carried out by people who are not clergy are not publicised but to avoid these cases we must insist on eduaction and this is very important.
'We cannot blame the whole of the clergy for a few who have fallen and who have sinned.'
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