Kenneth Chandler, in "Tradition and the Secret Sin of the Church" (April 8), suggests that the Catholic Church's " 'no contraception' rule is wildly out of touch with contemporary society." Disagreement with that statement aside, Chandler is himself "wildly out of touch" with the theory behind allowing priests to marry as a possible deterrent for pedophilia.
Chandler's assertion that "child abusers usually become such because they are victims of their own traumatic psychological experiences at a young age" is fairly accurate, but he goes on to treat that theory as the only possible explanation for later behavior. In fact, other common characteristics of pedophiles, according to the Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, include "moralistic sexual attitude or sexual repression," both not only encouraged by the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement but mandated. It is true that treatment proves largely ineffective, and I doubt one could consider marrying proper treatment for pedophilia anyway, but this certainly does not deem the proposed change worthless.
To my knowledge, no one is suggesting that the policy change will "cure" the priests who are already pedophiles but that allowing priests to engage in a more natural private life might ease sexual repression that can lead to sexual disorders.Whether it is appropriate to implement such a change is difficult to know, and I am not necessarily advocating for the abolishment of the celibacy requirement, but I object to opposing an idea at length by misrepresenting the theory behind it.
Lindsay Carroll
Freshman
Business
