priests

The biggest lie the church puts forth is, that this is a problem with gay priests. They do this to make it a gay problem, rather than a problem with priests in general. What the church and the media ignore is, far more young girls are being molested by priests than boys. They also ignore the fact that, pedophilia is about control, and that, these criminals go after what they have access to. Society will pay more attention to a man, especially a priest or teacher, when they hang around girls, than when they hang around boys. So, pedophiles tend to do whatever enables them to commit their acts of sexual violence against the innocent. The church can't deny the numbers of gay priests, some are driven to the church out of devotion, other out of guilt. The latter hope to deny their sexuality via devotion, which never works in the end. Many gay priests have been active in the church as alter boys and such, from a vary young age, and they truly desire to continue their service to the church as priests, its a natural progression. So, when they discover their sexuality before or after entering the priesthood, removing them from the church would deny their many years of devotion. The Boy Scouts have the same issue, how can you tell a child most of his life that, you have unconditional love and respect for all segments of society, and when the kid now a teenager realizes their sexuality, deny them that respect once they reach 18. It is the loss of that comradeship and respect that drives many a boy scout to be in denial or to hide in the closet, as due many of those young men who become priest, as they don't want to loose what they have experienced being part of their church growing up. So, there are many layers to this issue, and denying its existence is an operation in futility. Also, as someone pointed out, many of the apostles were married. So, if its good for the apostles of Jesus, it should be good for any priest.