I see akenaton is still wearing his homophobe hat.
It is not a homosexual problem - it is an opportunistic abuse of power by clerics against children put in their care. Juggling with figures is a way of placing the blame elsewhere, nothing more.
So far we have seen only the tip of the iceberg. The government here in Ireland has refused to hold an enquiry into the events surrounding the Magdelene Laundries - all the victims were women. We have no idea of the extent of the abuses and against whom they were perpetrated beyond the time limits set by the enquiries held so far. We have no idea of the abuses carried out in diocese not yet examined.
"Change the Celibacy Rule, encourage heterosexuals to take up the priesthood, and the problem will solve itself" is nothing more than disingenuous bigotry.
Are we to assume that the problems of the church heirarchy who readily colluded in the crimes and allowed the criminals to escape justice and continue their abuses will also 'solve themselves'? And those clerics who knew what was happening and did nothing; where do they fit into akenaton's grand 'homo' plan - homosexuals themselves, closet homosexuals - what?
Smokescreens like this are a sure-fire guarantee that these criminals will escape justice (bar the few token resignations we have seen so far), things will remain the same and the cycle of abuse will start all over again.
These were opportunistic acts of power - they did it because they could; and they are expressions of contempt rather than of sexual preference.
Jim Carroll