Amy Berg (1)

Deals very well with but one case of the global, monolithic problem of child sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. Here is a clearer statement regarding the history of clergy celibacy, stated on Wikipedia:

"The earliest Christians were Jews and Jewish tradition has always deemed the married state as more spiritual than the celibate state. However Christian tradition places a high valuation on chastity as a special gift of God. The life of a priest involves being conformed to Christ. It is known that the Apostle Peter had a spouse from Gospel stories of Peter's mother-in-law sick with fever (Matt 8:14, Mark 1:29, Luke 4:38) and from Paul's mention that Peter took along a believing wife in his ministry (1 Cor 9:5).

"From its beginnings, the idea of clerical celibacy has been contested in canon courts, in theology, and in religious practices. Celibacy for Roman Catholic priests was not mandated under canon law for the universal church until the Second Lateran Council in 1139.

"The Council of Elvira in Spain (c. 305–306) was the first council to call for clerical celibacy. In February 385, Pope Siricius wrote the 'Directa decretal,' which was a long letter to Spanish bishop Himerius of Tarragona, replying to the bishop’s requests on various subjects, which had been sent several months earlier to Pope Damasus I. It was the first of a series of documents published by the Church's magisterium that claimed apostolic origin for clerical celibacy and reminded ministers of the altar of the perpetual continence required" (Wikipedia, "Priesthood in the Catholic Church," accessed on 9/29/2018 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesthood_in_the_Catholic_Church#Early_Christiani... ).… (mais)