Tim Staples dispels the common myth that priests turn to pedophilia due to sexual repression from celibacy, and explains why celibacy is actually a sign of the highest love of all which wills the good of another.
Transcript:
Host: This question comes from Connie on Facebook Live: “Tim, can you explain why priests are to live chase lives? I recently had someone tell me that the Catholic Church is the reason why so many priests stray and have relationships with other people and abuse children.”
Tim: You know, that’s another popular myth. In fact, oh, what was our good friend from Penn State University that wrote the book “Priests and Pedophiles: The Anatomy of a Crisis?” What was his name? Dr…it’ll come—Philip Jenkins. Dr. Philip—great book. I read it back in 2001. He did extensive research on this whole quote-unquote “pedophile crisis.” And—parts are comical, because in one section he talks about a forty-year study that was done by the Archdiocese of Chicago on the “pedophile crisis,” and it was—when the actual information was gathered, he said there was actually only one case of actual pedophilia. It was mostly ephebophilia, which is— Oh, teenagers. Relationships with post-pubescent teenagers. And he says in this book, “Were it not for this one sad case, there would have been an absolute lack of actual pedophilia in the ‘pedophilia crisis’ of the Archdiocese of Chicago.” The problem was actually homosexuality, but of course the culture can’t say there’s anything wrong with homosexuality, because we say “It’s normal” as a culture, right? But that was really the issue, at least for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Now there have been pedophilia problems and so forth, and one case is one case far too many. But the point is, in Dr. Philip Jenkins’ book, he did extensive research and found, number one: the percentage of priests actually involved is EXTREMELY low. We’re talking, like, 1.7%, versus in Protestant ministry it’s actually much higher. It’s not even close, it’s like three times higher. And most ministers are married. Yes! In fact, most pedophiles are married. Most—it’s father with daughter and such.
I mean, it’s—this thing got so blown out of proportion, number one, even on the numbers, but number two: celibacy has nothing to do with it. I mean, when we’re talking about pedophilia, we’re talking about a sickness. This is not—even secular psychologists will tell you—this isn’t even the normal sexual sort of deviancy like adultery or fornication or masturbation; this is a sickness, this is about power and control, and these people really need some serious psychological help.
Alright. But now, when it comes to actual celibacy, what you find is, celibacy is not part of the problem, it’s part of the answer! Celibacy is a great gift to the Church, and it is needed so desperately now because of the fact that we live in the midst of a sexually crazed culture where, oh my gosh, just go out and look at the billboards, open a magazine, turn on the TV. Celibacy is an eschatological sign for us today. When we see a Pope St. John Paul the Great, a Mother Teresa—St. Teresa of Calcutta, we see, lived out in their lives, the fact that sex dies when we do; love is eternal!
I mean, my gosh, we’re so crazy—the mentality in our culture is, “If you’re not having sex, you’re gonna go crazy!” Right? Which is an absolute lie! What does that say to elderly couples who can’t have sex anymore, or people in various situations in their marriages where they can’t have sex—“Oh, you must be deviant and sick because you’re not—” I mean, that is, it’s absolutely a lie, and thanks be to God for the celibates, like I’ve mentioned, who are that sign to us. Love, my friends, love which, at its core, is to will the good of the other, it’s completely disinterested.
And by the way, this is why Plato held the love between two men to be of such a high level, it’s because—not because he taught homosexuality, he didn’t—but it’s because it’s disinterested. You’re not asking for anything. It’s a love. That’s kind of—you know, Plato didn’t have the sense of celibacy that we do with the advent of Christ, but it’s that sense of disinterested love that is God. God gives, He creates, He redeems; not because he’s gonna get anything back, but He gives because He is Love. And that’s what we’re called to do even in a marriage situation, where I have a conjugal relationship; we have to constantly be reminded—and our celibate brothers and sisters remind us of this—of what love is. My wife is not a sexual object for me. She is to be put up on a pedestal, and I love her, and I give myself until it hurts to her without asking for anything in return. We have to remember that.
So at any rate, forgive me for going on and on about this, but I do think, in our modern era, too often we fall prey to that myth, that celibacy is the problem. No, my friends, celibacy is the answer. Jesus recommended it in Matthew 19:12. St. Paul recommended it in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And I think those are two pretty good guys to take wisdom from: Jesus and St. Paul—and by the way, the Holy Spirit too.
And—don’t you think there’s something about the 19th century, the Freudian stuff and all that, it polluted our society with ideas that, in a weird way, have now been proven—no, that’s not how the psyche works. But yet, people are still poisoned with that idea that any kind of repression means I’m losing my humanity or something. Yes, it is incredible how we have ended up lowering humanity to the level of the lower appetites, and—to the animal level, when it’s our intellect and our will and our ability to rise above our appetites and our passions that makes us human.