Email comments posted on Times online

In response to 07 January 2008 article

“Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia” 

I believe the Church tried prayer to rid the world of the Black Death in the 14th Century too. But the curse of man at time wasn't the Devil or the sins of men - it was the unclean living habits of people that allowed the spread of a disease caused by microbes that caused the deaths of millions. When it was finally realized what caused the the problem, the on going threat of the Plague was defeated.

When it finally realized that the problem of the sexual abuse of children and adults in Church is caused by a willingness to allow priests, bishops or other agents to continue to live a double lives among us; when it is understood that turning perps over to the law instead of to Church officials is needed, then the problem will be overcome.

Mike Drabik, Toledo, Ohio,

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The laity apologize, and do penance for the crimes of priests and bishops??? The bishops of every diocese with abusive priests should spend the Lenten season sitting in front of their Cathedrals in sack cloth and ashes, along with all members of their inner circles who also conspired - some of them years ago - but - the bishops and their advisors are the ones to do penance not the laity! This should have happened when Boston first erupted.

Kay, Gretna, Nebraska, USA

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Um, if prayer could stop peophilia, wouldn't priests be the last people to be involved???

Thomas Mc, Colorado Springs, USA

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Find the paedophiles priests and deal with them effectively. Where genuine abuse has taken place take responsibility for it and recompense. Hunt down those opportunists who are falsely accusing prists of sexual abuse. These priests are destroyed and easy prey. The Catholic Church did not address the issues of sex abuse worldwide as it occurred but operated open prisons moving paedophile priests around without responsibility or compassion for the victims. The Church has now gone in the opposite direction and is exposing genuine innocent priests as fair game for opportunistic claims. Where is Christ in all of this? Crucified all round!

Praying is of no use get off your knees and address the inuustices for those who are genuinely abused and shamefully falsely accused!

M. Rocha, Liverpool, UK

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More despicable rubbish from this man and his organization.

The children of this world don't need prayers, they need action. We all need to protect them, from those who have been sheltered by the catholic church whilst abusing children for years.

F.S.Summers, N.Y.,

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It's been ages since the catholic church made me laugh out loud! How daft can you get!?i

shelagh, La barthe,

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How do some of your correspondents arrive at the idea that marriage stops sexual sin, frustration and paedophilia?. They must have an extraordinarily limited experience of life. Much more recourse to God is, of course, the only and incredibly real solution.

Father Bryan Storey, Tintagel, UK

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Well, it's got to be cheaper than putting in place proper screening and management oversight procedures.

But surely it would be more efficient simply to pray for a list of names....?

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

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If the Pope really wanted to cleanse the church of priests who abuse children he would see that they were fired and their crimes reported to the police instead of maintaining the principle of omerta and moving them to another parish where they can carry on their depredations. See the documentary "Deliver Us From Evil".

richard cope, johannesburg, south africa

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Pray ? How about taking direct action ... The guy is a joke , an embarrassment to humanity let alone Catholics .

Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,

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Of course the problem is that less than 15% of the abuse is paedophilia. The problem, by all statistical evidence, is homosexuality - priests soliciting and having sexual relations with teenage boys. That is the problem the church is afraid to face, and society doesn't want to believe exists.

Bert, Raleigh, NC, USA

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Just because a person is celibate doesn't mean it can lead to phedophilia. I work with children of diverse backgrounds who were child abuse by all kinds of people. Mike Hill to answer your question about celibacy in the Scriptures look up St. MAtthew 19: 27) go to CAtholic Apologetics websites!

Mark PAtino, KAnsas City, Kansas USA

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Andrew in Newbury, I am a Christian, although not a Catholic, but the idea of calling the church to prayer on a particular issue is certainly Biblical. Specifically leaders and prophets would call the people to fasting and prayer. The idea was that sins would be confessed (either on your own behalf or on behalf of others), that the church turn to the God on their knees and seek His mercy, eg Neh 1: 4 - 7.

God does not want us to continue sinning, you're right he sent his only son Jesus to pay the price for our sins, and He knows we are human and continue to sin despite our best efforts, as it says in Matt 26:41, and later in 1 Cor 10:13, '...God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.'

I don't pretend to understand it all: I know in my heart that God hates our sins; he knows all that we do; he hears our prayers; he also knows how it all works out in the end.

Judith, Cheltenham, UK

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Pathetic. "a code adopted two years ago by the Vatican to try to ensure that men ‘with deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ do not enter seminaries to train for the priesthood".

The problem is not that some of these people are gay - it is that they are sexually attracted to children. Look at the Anglican church - being gay is practically a prerequisite, and has never been a problem.

It's this type of repeated misconception by these deluded old men that does most of the damage. The church as an institution is old, corrupt and sick (as most of its' decision-making members), and should be dismantled. Good luck getting those at the top to give up their palaces and banquets.

Elf, Brighton, UK

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It is not the small percent who commited the sin, but the much larger group who knew and did nothing. The Pope is one of the latter group. Do not pray but take action, remove these people.

George, ocala, FL

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The victims do not need and do not seek mercy - they want justice and they need reparation.

Maciels prolific sexual abuse was brought to the attention of the vatican in the 1950s, in the 1970s, in the 1980s and in the 1990s.

When will they apologise to the victims they did not protect?

Aaron, Derry, Ireland

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Can he not shorten the whole process by saying: Shazam?

Isn't that what magicians with funny clothes do?

Or maybe stop hiding paedophile priests in the Vatican which has no extradition treaties with any countries would help.

Mike, London,

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I believe the Pope and other high officials in the Church who say that it was/is only a very small minority of priests who have been involved in such scandelous crimes as paedophilia. Only anti-Catholic bigots would inflame the situation further by stating that "it must be even more", or "it's just the tip of the iceberg". In the USA, there have been in addition to the 4,000+ priests guilty of paedophilia etc, also hundreds of Protestant ministers and clergy found guilty of the same abuses, and other crimes. So the situation is not only Catholic.

It is interesting to note however, that the epidemic of priest abuse started after the reforms of Vatican II were implemented, and the Latin Tridentine Mass and devotions which went with it supressed. The general decline in spirituality, disipline, observance, Faith, devotion, the belief in Sin, etc. in the priesthood and in the Church in general since Vatican II is laregely responsible for this. A return to Catholic tradition would help.

Kenjiro Shoda, Philadelphia, USA/PA

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yes pray thats good, but prosecute too.

mike, chicago, il usa

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Finally, at least in prayer, the hierarchy of the Church has acknowledged the grievousness and proportion of this crime. This is a first step, and an important one, if for no other reason than this acknowledgement. Perhaps if the victims/survivors see that the Pope is making some kind of effort, those who have been unable to come forward in the past will be able to do so now and begin their healing. Unfortunately - this to Dave of Pittsburgh - this will not resolve the issue. Until the bishops and cardinals who covered up and lied about the predatory priests are held accountable, and the offending clergy are forced to register as sex offenders, the issue will not be resolved. True, measures are needed to more carefully screen candidates for the priesthood, but simultaneously, the church needs to weed out those already in the clergy and the hierarchy who have contributed to this soul murder.

Gabrielle Azzaro, Cardiff by the Sea, CA

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It is going to take more than prayer. At a minimum it will take a measure that actually works.

Why call for an increase in a process that is without evidence to support its efficacy?

Roger Scott, Brisbane, Australia

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Why is this the problem of the people? They are not the one causing the problems. They are the victims and parents of the victims. How stupid can one be and still breathe? "Lets see, My staff is rampant with boy buggerers and rapists and I'm going to make it YOUR problem to fix". Hey, Mr Pope, Aren't YOU the head of this corrupt medieval organization? Why don't YOU do something about it?

You and your ilk have allowed it to be covered up for centuries and only now with the power of the press and instant communications you can no longer keep it hidden, thats its out of the bag. After all this time you never 'fessed up and came clean. No, your staff were dragged through courts and made to confront victims, and then pay astronomical sums in 'damages', and now you want to palm the problem off onto the victims. The one true church? Nice one. Really nice.

Peter, Adelaide, Australia

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Hey I've got it. How about doing a little house cleaning?

Conny Lyngus, Cherry hill, Washington

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Since my first comments were not posted, I am appreciative that others have made similar comments... I shall restate what I hoped would be posted earlier. Priests who cannot be faithful to their celibate chastity will not necessarily be faithful to marital chastity--both are difficult. Matrimony is not a remedy for sexual predation. Statistically, the most likely situation for suxual abuse is in a household with a man cohabitating with a woman who has children who are not his own. [Does this make all men in this situation abusers? No!!!] For those atheist who think prayer is worthless because "God knows the problem..." Prayer disposes us, with our free will, to respond to God's grace and live justly and morally. Finally, the rejection of the belief of the possibility eternal punishment has led to all kinds of destructive deviations.

Fr. Matthew Phelan, Philadelphia, USA/Pennsylvania

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I'm so glad that there are so many sensible people commenting on this article. However some people have the bizarre idea that by not marrying someone turns into a paedophile...how interesting for all happy single people in the world.

More teachers than priests worldwide have been charged with sexual assaults on minors. We don't harangue them do we and question their professional standing?...oh yes, sorry the lovely liberal members of our great nation do.

The Roman Catholic Church is an excellent institution, and this latest initation is superb - Perpetual Eucharistic Devotion is also needed to foster new vocations...decent and clean living priests, which are in the massive majority.

We need to weed out the active (and therefore hypocritical) homosexuals from British and American Seminaries...that would remove a LOT of the problems that the Church has experienced. Visiting Oscott seminary and hearing some seminarians refer to each other by female names...is truly dreadful.

Stefan, Cardiff, UK

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God Bless Pope Benedict XVI for having the courage to resolve this issue.

Dave Mattozzi, Piittsburgh, Pa.

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Perhaps the Pope might also want Catholics to offer up prayers (not that they do any good at all) for all those Catholics who kept clear evidence of paedophilia within the Church away from law enforcement officials.

Clive, Epsom, England

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I will take the Pope's well-intended effort seriously when he kicks Cardinal Law, and other bishops, who knowingly transferred abusive priests from parish to parish, out of the priesthood.

Dave, Hudson, USA/NH

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Hello,

I am impressed and touched by this news. I have written letters on this dire situation to the Pope myself last year. It makes me almost joyful to see him come out of the background action field to the open about this. And so general his measure is! Never a pope asked the whole Church to pray so much for something!

I understand the comment of Kimberly, and I like the joke about the stranded ship voyager, but she forgets that the article states that this our Joseph pope Benedict is indeed working hard on the situation since many years! Great changes, I can tell you as a historian, you will see them happen, if only you give them the Time to take place! - And it is allways good for the victims and for your own soul to do what you can do, the smallest step is significant!!

Stefaan Hublou, Leuven, Belgium

PS. I am married to an ordinant into priesthood in the Church of England. It is a very special marriage indeed... Not always easy.

HUBLOU, Stef Christoph, Leuven, Belgium

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The pope seems to have forgotten that God helps those who help themselves. Just praying is going to have no effect whatsoever.

starling, Lancaster,

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"Paedophilia" is an inaccurate description of these incidents. Overwhelmingly these incidents involved boys who had reached puberty, not infants.

TS, Toronto, Canada

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Most acts of abuse come from within the family. Being celibate is not the issue. It's too bad more people don't support addressing the problem instead of showing their religious bigotry.

Tom, des moines, ia

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Kathleen in Sacramento, like many people, especially the mass of Catholic bashers, is clueless. If she thinks only Catholic priests abuse children she is in cloud cuckoo land. Amazing as it may seem to many people, married men also abuse children. Yes it's true. Doctors abuse children, accountants abuse children and unemployed people abuse children. To assume Catholic priests abuse children any more than any other group of people is complete nonsense.

Paedophiles wherever they come from are animals but marriage ain't going to cure this problem

A Thomas, Durham,

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Remind me of an old joke. A man is stranded in the ocean, so he prays to god to save him. A boat comes by, but the man replies, 'I don't need your help, God will save me.' Then a second boat comes by and he sends them away with, 'I don't need your help, God will save me.' The man, of course, dies. He goes to heaven and while he is there he asks God, 'Why didn't you save me?' To which, God replies, 'I sent you two boats.'

Prayer alone NEVER works. You have to get up and do something about it. I don't care if you believe in God or not, the church is not going to be 'cured' by prayer. People have to get in there and convict these priests, send them to jail, fire them, and then find people who are actually good people to replace them. Or do whatever it takes to fix it. God doesn't fix problems, he gives us the means to fix them, we have to do it ourselves.

Kimberly, Somewhere/Anywhere,

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The church needs to review it's policy regarding priests and marriage. There is nothing in the Bible that says that men cannot serve God in the ministry if they are married. I've been a pastor's wife for 28 years. My husband can counsel couples with marriage problems much better than a priest who has no clue what he's talking about. The Bible says that it is better to marry than to burn with lust. If priests could marry, most of these sexual problems would go away.

Kathleen, Sacramento, CA, USA

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These comments show great ignorance about paedophilia. You can't 'cure' such a deep-seated problem by encouraging the paedophile to marry. So whether or not the Church has married clergy is irrelevant. Secondly, there in fact is a link with homosexuality: the vast majority of the paedophile priests' victims were early-teen boys, not girls. The Pope is quite correct that there is a problem about men with such desires having been admitted to seminaries, and they now need to be screened out. Critics of the Catholic Church should be delighted that there is recognition of this problem by the Pope and a clear programme to address it. The Pope's request for prayer thoughout the Church is a sign of how seriously he is taking this. He is following the command of Jesus who taught us to pray 'Deliver us from evil'.

Andrew, Abingdon, England

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"Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray 'in perpetuity' to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy."

Prayers are utterly in order, however we need more than prayers " to purify the clergy" We need once for all to clean up now the entire Church all the way up to Cardinals from pedophiles, homosexuals and any unfit for the clergy. Prayers alone will Not do.

lember, Willowick, usa/Ohio

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As a priest I would say that prayer is always fitting -- however, as a VICTIM OF CLERLGY ABUSE I would say it is not enough. Eight months before ordination I was raped as a deacon by one of the priest in the parish. I reported to my supervisor -- come to find out my supervisor had been diagnoes 13 years earlier (1957) with a psychopathological personality and like playing with mentally ill teenaged girls. He was still active when I was raped (1970). IN the fall of 2001 I had a flashback. Since then I had to follow my conscience and leave ministry. As a preist I could no longer represent bishops who covered up and failed to take respopnsibility for their own actions. What the Vatican needs to do is remove those bishops who have brought as much (if not more) scandal to the church.

Rev James F Moran, Alexandria, USA/Virginia

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Two items:

To Paola of Milan, this has NOTHING to do with homosexuality. There are millions of gay men who have NOTHING to do with minors. The great majority of child abuse is male against female child.

On to the issue.... Out of touch is putting it mildly. Why isn't this Pope calling for the removal of the bishops who kept the abuse hidden and did nothing at the time it was occurring? THAT is something he has full control over and could do something positive to show the Church takes responsibility for the actions and the concealment.

But, I won't hold my breath till it happens. SO much easier to push the responsibility to the parishioners and to God to clean up the Pope's act.

Thomas Denney, Austin, Texas

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While I commend daily communication with God, I must remind the leaders of the Catholic Church that communication is a two-way street. It's not just speaking, but listenning as well. If they desire to succeed, they need to listen to what God has said in His Word, the Bible. For example, the idea of "forced celibacy" for priests is considered a doctrine from hell in 1Timothy 4:1-3: "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to ...doctrines of demons, 2 ..., 3 forbidding to marry,". Besides, the Apostle Paul clearly states that church leaders are to be the "husband of one wife" in 1Timothy 3:2. God has made us sexual beings and being married, having sex within the context of a marital,monogomous relationship between a man and a women is blessed by God, not considered "unspiritual". I believe you'd see a lot less abuse if they followed this truth. For some, Paul does suggest (not command) to remain single in 1Cor. 7

Mike Hill, Aberdeen , Idaho USA

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The Pope's appeal is welcome. Divine power will lead to the unmasking of some of the perpetrators, perhaps give some of the victims greater courage to speak out, and enable those who might damage children to withstand their temptations.

Many people assume there is some link between celibacy and paedophilia, but the vast majority of paedophilia assaults are perpetrated by family members: stepfathers, elder brothers, Mum's new boyfriend, favourite uncles etc.

Those churches which have a married clergy - Anglicanism and Methodism - have hardly been immune to child abuse cases, although the media have homed in on the Catholic church to an unprecedented degree. Even Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) says he thinks the Catholic Church has been unfairly treated by the media in this respect.

The appalling repeat-repeat-repeat cases in some US and Irish dioceses have not really been paralleled to the same extent at all in the UK. But even one case is bad enough...

Bernard O'Callaghan, Chorley, England

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Is it too cynical of me to point out that if prayer helped it would not need to be perpetual? No, I don't think it is.

Gatz, Chelmsford, UK

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The pope does well to call attention to this issue and to as catholics to address it through serious community prayer.

Allowing priests in the Latin rite to marry wouldn't solve anything. The number of priests who have been involved in paedophilia (less than 1%) is lower than the golbal overall statistic.

Chris Dela, Cambridge,

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As ever the Pope either misses the point or is, much more likely, a hypocrite when his answer to child-abuse in this church is for Catholics to "pray in perpetuality" or for candidates 'with deep-seated homosexual tendencies' to be banned from entering the seminaries (scurrulously suggesting homosexuals and paedophiles are one and the
same thing) . The inability to see that allowing men to fulfil their perfectly human sexual needs within a loving relationship with a male or female partner, possibly in the context of marriage and children or a pax is the only way forward highlights what many of us have known for a long time: that ultimately dangerous, irrational dogma still rules.

Paola, Milan, Italy

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Praying is talking to yourself. The best solution to this perverted priests problem is fire them and make them get real jobs. An even better solution would be to close down the entire Catholic religion, which after all is nothing but childish nonsense.

BobC, Margate, Florida

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It's not about God, it's about people. Jesus did not die for some people, but for all to give hope that each human can have the chance to go to heaven. And the fact that some do not choose God and, what's more, make awful harm to others, means that these people consciously choose hell.

Pope shows that he is really interested in this matter and he is not going to hide away from it.

Monica, Warsaw

Monica, Warsaw, Poland

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I believe that changing the rules and allowing priests to get married would be more helpful that prayers to avoid paedophile.

Roberto Castellano, Salsomaggiore, Italy

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I note with sad irony the exclusive language and use of the power of prayer is only to rid ' the catholic church' of such an evil, not as most humans would hope 'the whole world'.

blue, Melbourne, Australia

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What is exposed must be only a tip of the iceberg.

Most victims would be too ashamed or embarassed
to speak.

malcolm weatherhead, perth , australia

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How does this work, I wonder? Presumably god is fully aware of each abuse of each child by one of his ordained spokesmen on earth, even as the poor victim is being ravished? And presumably the omnipotent-one decides to do anything about it on the basis that humans are tainted with original sin and it's exactly the kind off thing he'd expect sinners to do. After all, he sent his only begotten son to die for sins, so that would have been a total waste if we didn't carry on sinning.

However, the Pope seems to be saying, if enough people ask the mighty one really nicely he might just do something to stop it.

It truly beggars belief. Theists keep telling us that we simply don't understand/willfully ignore the teachings of their faiths. I'd be really interested to hear from a believer why a story like this makes any sense at all to them.

Andrew, Newbury,

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the priest need prayer now more than ever.may God and our holy mother help them

micheal, abuja, nigeria

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Absolutely incredible!

The Pope asking for prayers to stop paedophilia among the clergy!

Does the Pope not know that the Catholic Church is a gargantuan pressure cooker of sexual desire?

That for two thousand years its clergy have been playing and enjoying this game?
Prayers will achieve nothing.

Just let the clergy marry and raise families.

SanYing, Montreal, Canada QC

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Perhaps if the church would reject celibacy and allow priests to marry and live like normal human beings a good part of the proplem would go away.

It's time for the pope and all other churchmen who wear funny hats to GET REAL.

Bruce L. Northwood, Silver Spring, USA

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Prayer. Yeah, right. Prayer didn't cleanse the Augean stables, Herakles did. And prayer won't cleanse the church. But it will make people feel better about the filth, I suppose.

Robert Firth, Singapore,

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Prayer is not going to do a damn thing to stop celibate, sexually frustrated, emotionally stunted priests from sexually assaulting children. Allowing priests to marry and therefore lead normal, sexually healthy lives really is the only solution.

Georgia Lewis, Dubai, UAE