Pope Francis is a wonderful man to lead the Catholic church in its attempt to rebuke and punish clergy whose reprehensible behavior has permanently damaged thousands of lives.

However, his efforts will be for naught if the church doesn’t squarely face why this awful abuse occurred in the first place and ask itself some tough questions. Does the church attract men with a tendency toward pedophilia?

Young seminarians are full of the desire to serve God and spread their gospel. What isn’t taken into account is that they are human — men with normal sexual desires who have been to forced to go against the basic law of nature by being required to take the oath of celibacy.

How about the Catholic church joining the 21st century and encouraging clergy to marry, thereby giving them a more realistic view of family problems on which they are asked for advice? Why not encourage women to be minsters, too?

It is no wonder that an institution that still functions in the distant past is not able to recruit enough priests to serve its congregations.

Marion Walker

Kaneohe

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