Re: Catholics are crazy to send their kids to monasteries.
Namaste FFTW,
Interesting thing I learned from a neighbour of mine a while back. As recently as one or two generations ago, sons from respectable, educated middle-class families were "assigned" and groomed for professions by their parents. Some were made the doctor of the family. Others were made the solicitor/lawyer. The last was usually made the priest. It was effectively a life of unrequested celibacy.
While I have no doubt there are cases of sexual abuse from all religious traditions, it has to be said there is a great disproportion coming from the RC side. I believe this greatly owes to the tradition that Catholic priests are not allowed to marry and therefore engage in conjugal relations. The religions of the West always had (and still do to this day) an unhealthy attitude towards sex. The backlash to this puritanical enforcement of views on the people was the "sexual revolution" of the 60s and onward, evident even today in the rampant promiscuity of the Western culture where it's completely normal to engage in extramarital relations, affairs and pornography. So you see the harm in having these extremes.
Priests may be servants of God, but they are human all the same. I can understand how the denial of one of man's most basic needs could twist and distort into something as perverted as paedophilia and other sexual perversions. This does not mean to say it justifies it, but I think I can imagine the origin of it all lies in the RC's stance on priests and marriage. I'm not saying Protestants don't have the same problems, but if you compare the cases of sexual abuse with the Church of England to the Catholic Church, I think you'll see the figures speak for themselves.
Om namah Shivaya
"Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
Om Gam Ganapataye namah
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ।
Lokaah SamastaaH Sukhino Bhavantu
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