And the new Pope will continue to keep the volumes of records on pedopriests away from prosecutors.

But...celibacy...works. Or does it create aberrant behavior?
Celibacy is based on the absurd notion men can stop their penises from functioning with simple will power. Not likely.

You know what would be a good pair of statistics to beat "traditional marriage" trolls over the head with?

1) The ratio of the number of parish priests to the number of allegations of child sexual abuse by said priests.

vs.

2) The ratio of the number of married gay men to the number of allegations of child sexual abuse committed by those men.

Because, I'm pretty sure it would show, that rather than take your sexually repressed/church-tormented/self-loathing teens and ship them off to become parish priests, you should encourage them to live full and open lives, with family love and support, and someday maybe find a nice husband you'd be proud to call a son-in-law.

Sorry, Dan, but a priest molesting a teenager is not news at this point.

For what it's worth: Argentine priest Julio Grassi jailed over sexual abuse.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-am…

@2 - I don't think celibacy creates aberrant behaviour... It's more that the Church has been a hiding place for paedophiles since forever. They were aberrant first, and then sheltered by the Church. Celibacy don' en'er inoo it.

Huh. The kid and the priest met thru Craigslist and were caught in a public place.

Can we be happy he wasn't, in this case, molesting a child under his control? I mean, on the continuum of bad behavior, this one at least smells a bit consensual.

What I am puzzled by is one of the charges: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under age 16. Involuntary? Deviate? Is that supposed to be deviant? What? Huh?

The mama pajama rolled out of bed
And she ran to the police station
When the papa found out he began to shout
And he started the investigation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VrKro8d…

@7: I agree with you up until the 'celibacy doesn't enter into it' part. I think pedophiles flock to the Church for the access, but the celibacy imperative introduces additional sexual pressure which ultimately leads to decreased impulse control.