IRELAND
Irish Central
Father Tony Flannery, the 66 year old Irish priest and founding member of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland (ACP) who has been threatened with excommunication from the Catholic Church for his outspokenness, has claimed this week that there is a link between clerical sex abuse and clerical celibacy.
Flannery said that the celibate lifestyles which priests were forced to live led to struggles over sexuality and could have resulted in children being sexually abused.
Priests faced an inevitable struggle with their sexuality, Flannery said.
‘The Catholic Church in Ireland seems to believe that it has dealt with the problems of clerical sexual abuse by putting structures in place to protect children,’ he said.
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