Vatican denies celibacy at the root of abuse

THE Vatican has denied that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the Church in Europe and again defended the Pope’s handling of the crisis.

Suggestions that the celibacy rule was somehow responsible for the “deviant behaviour” of a few priests have swirled in recent days.

Much of the furore was spurred by comments from one of the Pope’s closest advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who called this week for an honest examination of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of abusive priests.