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1. The shortage of priests, Fr Kung, is because your generation has secularized the role of the priest. How many times does it have to be said: celibacy is not forced.
   The seminarian has 7 years (minimum) to discern and is free to leave if he feels he can't live a life of celibacy.
   The Church does not have an 'uptight attitude to sex', but rather an uptight attitude towards lust.
   

   Posted By: Bee Jay

2. I don't believe Fr Kung's theory at all. How does he explain Protestants with no celibacy vow who sexualy abuse? Or anyone else for that matter. Sounds like he has an axe to grind.

   Posted By: Lora

3. Fr Kung's laying the number of abuse cases by Catholic Priests at the feet of 'celibacy' would carry more weight with me if he could also arrange for teachers, lawyers, and others who are charged with abuse, to have their religions named. I have yet to see any other person than a Catholic Priest/Brother have their religion referred to e.g. Baptist Lawyer, Anglican teacher, etc. etc. No wonder then that the impression is that only Catholics are faulty.

   Posted By: gloria healey

4. Good point here. I mean, you do have to question why is there so much sexual abuse within the catholic church as compared to any other organisation or religious group? Celibacy should not be 'forced' upon people, married men can make good priests. Christ chose St Peter and he was married.

   Posted By: Stephen

5. In response to Stephen who argues that the sheer number of sexual abusers in the Catholic Church raises questions about celibacy as a cause.
   What Stephen is obviously unaware of is that sexual abuse outside the priesthood is rampant and most sexual abuse occurs within families. It is also known that the teaching profession has enormous problems as have other professions such as doctors and psychiatrists.
   Because the Catholic Church has taken unpopular stances on a number of moral issues like abortion and homosexuality it is a target. Also, because numerically it is by far the largest of the Christian Churches the prevalence of sexual abuse seems greater than in other churches which have the same problem - in even greater proportion.
   Celibacy is definitely not the issue. Could the problem be that we live in a society which has lost respect for one of God's great gifts - a gift linked in His mind with genuine affection. respect and fruitfulness of one kind or another.

   Posted By: Robert

6. Professor Kung makes quite unwarranted statements that are quite unscientific.
   Celibacy is not forced on anyone who becomes a priest. Many people whom circumstances do force to live a single life (who have not made a choice of it as priests have) and who do their best to live chaste lives, would object in the strongest possible terms to being called potential child molesters.
   Any inquiry into this problem must concentrate on those who are involved in accepting and training men for the priesthood. How is it that so many paedophiles and homosexuals have found their way into the Catholic priesthood?
   Are there self-perpetuating 'rings' at work? Do 'ordinary' men who put themselves forward find a culture that rejects them and into which they cannot fit?

   Posted By: alice

7. The group most represented in child sexual abuse cases is heterosexual male defactos who are live with a woman and her children, but he has not biological relationship to the children. These men are in active sexual relationships and they abuse children.
   
   

   Posted By: Cath

8. The solution to sexual abuse (of whatever kind) is manifold, including better discernment, screening and formation processes. More honesty and transparency from Bishops is also urgent.
   It is a myth to argue that celibacy is forced as every candidate is required to freely respond to the call. As for being 'uptight about sex', Fr Hans Kung obviously hasn't heard about Theology of the Body.
   The future belongs to theologians who will love and defend Church teaching, not those who engage in a relentless guerilla war to undermine her.

   Posted By: Michael Bernard

9. As I heard Hans Kung speak on the ABC several Sundays ago, I was uplifted as at long last we have someone ready to stand up and speak for truth and justice.
   I congratulate Fr Kung for speaking out he is a prophet in our times. If only more bishops and priests would stand up forget about their positions and speak what many would believe.

   Posted By: Helen

10. Percentage of abuse by Catholic clergy world wide three percent. Abuse by non-Catholic clergy, five percent.

    Posted By: John Tobin

11. Great that a theologian of such great merit can voice clearly what I have always realised but had difficulty fully admitting to myself.
    When I hear of cases of abuse I say humbly 'But for the grace of God there goes I'.

    Posted By: Gerrit Kraan

12. The Church has two traditions: Married priests as in the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, the more ancient tradition going back to New Testament times; and celibate priests (with some exceptions) in the Roman Catholic Church and going back only to the 11th century.
    In the RC Church, celibacy is compulsory, with some exceptions. The test is if a married man was to apply to enter seminary he would surely be knocked back, even if God were calling him to priesthood.

    Posted By: Francis

13. I agree with Robert and Michael Bernard that compulsory celibacy is not the cause of abuse.
    Compulsory celibacy is responsible for a great deal of the other problems we have in the Church but celibacy per se is not causative in relation to abuse.
    Compulsory celibacy has decimated the number of priests we have in the West. It has deprived the people of God of the sacraments.
    It is long overdue to separate the function of priest: ie to celebrate the sacraments and that of evangelical celibacy which is proper to those whose vocation is to the religious life.

    Posted By: Elias Nasser

14. If celibacy were a major cause of child sexual abuse, then it would be expected that the rate of occurrence among celibate priests would be higher than for the general male rate.
    But I understand that, in the US for example, the rate is actually lower among celibate Catholic priests.
    If the Church is to understand the issues surrounding sexual behaviours better, it would be more helpful to delve into the behavioural sciences.
    There's a Pontifical Academy of Sciences which has had exemplary forums on topics such as evolution, climate change and even genetic modification of crops. And it has handled the most contentious of topics, with strongly held views on both sides, extremely well and fairly.
    I'd like to see this Academy pick up on behavioural matters relating to the development and expression of sexual behaviours. Fr Kung is welcome to his personal views, but science would come up with more valid and reliable information.
    That is not to discount the moral component at all. But insights into human behaviour can provide vital knowledge regarding what we have to make moral decisions about.
    

    Posted By: Marie H

15. Fr Kung thinks he should be Pope!

    Posted By: Anne Boyce

16. According to newspaper reports the Church of England (with married clergy), in England, is going back through decades of records of abuse and cover up. And it is unfair to necessarily attribute abusive tendences to homosexuals. Is it fair to enquire if the number of homosexuals among Catholic clergy and religious is greater than in the general population? Some reports say it is. Without proper survey material before me I would say it is not (in Australia). Some of the quoted high figures(not necessarily accurate) come from the USA.
    I believe homosexuals must be given understandung and tolerance. The child of a friend of mine had (I think had, past tense, is the correct word) a child with homosexual tendencies. I understand the worries they experienced. The comment by Robert is correct. The topic of Catholicism always attracts attention in just about whatever group of people it is raised. Other denominations do not. One reason is that those who oppose religion know that they first must eleminate the Catholic Church if they want their views to prevail. It is a privilege to be a Catholic but the responsibilities are numerous and enormous.

    Posted By: Mackie

17. The percentage of priests in trouble today are those formed in the seminaries decades ago.
    Many entering as young as 13 years old.
    In retrospect, how could anyone have expected them to know if they could live a life of chastity for the rest of their lives, after 6 years of a sexualy sheltered enviroment. Where wet dreams and your hands under the bedclothes were a sin.
    Those of us who are mothers would understand this.
    No wonder there are so many of them dysfunctual with psychological problems and through no fault of there own.
    Those were the times, my friend.
    Some of you men submitting comments think back, or ask your own mothers if they are still alive, how prepared you were at making decisions for the next day let alone making choices that was to affect your whole lives.
    At 30 years old some men still can't get it right, disciplined or not.
    It's too ridiculous for words and there are too many heads in the sand.

    Posted By: L Newington

18. Priests have left the Priesthood in their thousands over the last forty years, mainly to get married! A Catholic Priest is supposedly superior in moral behaviour and he teaches us our Faith.
    Sexual abuse is an abomination in the first degree. No statistics will suffice to justify the horrendous damage done. More than one Billion Dollars is being paid to victims in Ireland and the latest sexual abuse case in Germany when Cardinal Ratzinger was a Bishop defies any logic of justification of any statistics! Father Kung is not a theorist, but a realist!

    Posted By: Peter M

19. I can accept that celibacy per se is not the reason for paedophilia amongst priests, based on the evidence that it is actually higher amongst non-celibate clergy from other churches.
    The great scandal is that it occurs at all. It is well known that paedophiles are attracted to professions where they will be in positions of power over children. Hence the problems with teachers, scout leaders, etc., as well as clergy.
    In the past, priests were more powerful and parents were intimidated or believed the priest rather than their child. That has changed. Unfortunately, we have reached the point where priests are afraid to touch children for fear of being accused.
    Sadly, it has come to the stage where we cannot leave our children alone with another single adult, and at least two adults should be present, or the adult cannot be left alone with a single child.
    It is a separate argument whether priests should be permitted to marry. I know in my heart that I would have considered becoming a priest had I been able to marry. There are many men who are called to be celibate priests, and that is a good thing, but wouldn't it also be a good thing to have many more men as priests, and that would happen if they were able to marry?

    Posted By: Frank S

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