WOULD THE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
FORBID ITS CHURCH LEADERS TO MARRY?

PLEASE NOTE: This is by no means a complete list!

January 1992: "Father" Wilson Smart allegedly raped an altar boy years earlier and photographed him without clothes.

February 1992, Wisconsin: "Father" Bruce Hall was tried in Wisconsin for caressing a boy, 12 years of age, during visits to the rectory for counseling.

March 1992, California: "Father" Victor Ubaldi was charged by a San Diego woman for molesting her numerous times when she was a pre and early teenager.

April 1992, California: "Father" Patrick Kelly, aged 71, absconded to Ireland after being charged with molesting a little girl, having been forbidden to remain in the State of California.

May 1992, Arizona: "Father" Mark Lehman was sued by parents in the Diocese of Phoenix, AZ, who claimed he had molested their three children. He had received a ten year prison sentence only one month before for exploiting several other children.

June 1992, Massachusetts: "Father" Richard Lavigne in Shelbourne Falls, MA. was found guilty and jailed for 12 counts of child rape. For months he insisted that the accusations were part of a plot framed by a local group that had left his church.

July 1992, California: "Father" J.T. Monaghan (a retired priest) was charged with taking a 7 year old Sacramento girl, who he was counseling into the kitchen for cookies where he allegedly abused her.

August 1992, Indiana & Illinois: "Father" Patrick White, aldeady under indictment in the State of Indiana for his abuse of boys, was arrested in Illinois for criminal sexual assault of a minor. At the time of his arrest, law enforcement officers found Mr. White destroying snapshots of nude boys.

September 1992, Massachusetts: "Father" Ron Provost was charged and found guilty to having taken photographs of -2- unclothed boys (7 to 10 years old) in his rectory in Barre, MA. in order to obtain sexual pleasure. Some of the photos were 15 years old.

October 1992, New York: "'Father" Daniel Calabrese sodomized a minor in his Poughkeepsie, N.Y. rectory and was found guilty. After sentencing him to 90 days in jail, the District Attorney, William Grady reprimanded Cardinal John O'Connor for ignoring previous complaints concerning Calabrese's behaviour.

November 1992, Wisconsin: "Father" David Malsch was charged with taking a 14 year old boy in Wausau, Wisconsin, to a motel for two days, where he fondled him in the pool, gave him alcohol and took photos of the boy without clothes in the motel room. The boy had a learning disability,

December 1992, Massachusetts & New Mexico: "Father" David Holley after being accused of molesting children in Worcester, MA. was transferred to Alamogordo, NM, to a treatment center known as the Servants of the Paraclete. In New Mexico, he allegedly molested other children.

1993, California: In Santa Barbara over 30 children were molested in a seminary.

1993, Illinois: Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, IL, was quoted saying: "These are times that shake our faith and confidence in our most cherished systems and institutions. We hear about sexual abuse and the shattering effect it has on the victims, their families and the community. I am particularly shocked and saddened when I hear of allegations that some of our priests have committed these acts." The bishop was speaking from experience as he had recently removed six molesting priests.

1993, Massachusetts: Former priest, James Porter was sentenced to 18 - 20 years in a Massachusetts State Prison by Superior Court Judge, Robert L. Steadman, in New Bedford, MA. Porter, 58 pleaded guilty to 41 counts of sexual abuse between 1961 and 1967 in five parishes in south eastern Massachusetts. He could be eligible for parole in six years. More than 100 victims of the ex-priest reached a civil agreement with the local Archdiocese in 1992. The New Bedford Standard Times reported a $1.5 million settlement with 31 additional victims. Porter's case offers the largest example of clerical sexual abuse - or abuse by any individual - in American judical history. Judge Steadman lambasted Porter for his outrageous conduct and complete disregard for the physical, spiritual and psychological impact be had on his victims. He called Porter "an effigy" representing all the other named and unnamed child abusers. Porter's case was avidly pursued by victims who for many years had repressed memories of their abuse. Frank Fitzpatrick, now 43 said he was 39 before he could trace a lifetime of depression and lack of self esteem to the occasion on which he was drugged and molested by "Father" Porter.

1996, Ohio: An Ohio family suing the Catholic Church says their retarded son who died of AIDS got the disease from members of a religious order who raped him while he lived at a church-funded home.

The Catholic Church leadership can no longer hide the facts. Priests are molesting children throughout the land. Literally hundreds of priests in this country alone, are preying on children. To try to hush this unprecedented crisis the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has spent upwards of 500 million dollars in out-of-court settlements. Thousands of Americans will never be the same again because of molestation by their priest when they were children. Victims tell of drug and alcohol addiction, nightmares, depression and suicide attempts which they trace to the time when they were molested by a priest.
You should be concerned about how many of these molesters are still 'at-large' because Rome paid off the parents and the victims and then transferred the molesters to other parishes.

What does the Holy Bible say about this issue of Celibacy Of The Priesthood?

First, the bible says the Priesthood system was ABOLISHED (done away with) by Christ at the Cross:

"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.  For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." [Hebrews 10:10-14]

Secondly, the Bible says that having a wife and having children whom you've raised properly is a REQUIREMENT for church leadership.  How else can the people know if you are qualified to lead them and their families and to counsel them in the must fundamental issues of life - marriage and parenting.

"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop [church leader], he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;  (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" [1Timothy 3:1-5]