SEATTLE — A lay review panel in the Archdiocese of Seattle said the Catholic Church’s celibacy requirement for priests helped “set the stage for the deviant behavior” of clergy sexual abuse.
The 10-member Case Review Board said mandatory celibacy was one “contributing factor” to the sexual abuse scandal by blurring distinctions between “deviant or exploitative behavior and normal but unacceptable behavior.”
“While we make no judgment about the appropriateness of a celibate lifestyle, it is clear to us that, by combining the requirement of celibacy with a repression of the expression of human sexuality for priests, the church set the stage for the deviant and illegal behavior of a few that has been the focus of our work,” the panel said.
The board was asked by Archbishop Alex Brunett to review how the archdiocese handled 13 priests accused of sexual abuse between the 1950s and 1986. The panel made its report in June and it was released by Brunett on Oct. 5. Celibacy was one of many areas that was not properly addressed in seminaries, the board said, adding that “extraordinary efforts” are required by priests when they are asked to “abstain from expression of a fundamental aspect of the human condition.”
Church leaders have rebuffed calls from some priests’ associations and lay groups for a discussion on mandatory celibacy, saying celibacy remains a “gift” to both priests and the larger church. (TAB)
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