Is celibacy a factor in clerical child abuse?

RÓNÁN MULLEN admits there may be some relationship between celibacy “immaturely lived” and a tendency to paedophilia (Irish Examiner, October 19).

He then goes on to say that the clergy (of any religion) represent only 1.3 % of abusers in the country.

I don’t know where he gets his figures, but assuming his numbers are correct, we can do a little extrapolation. Firstly, the vast majority of child sex abusers are male and, secondly, male clergy in Ireland make up about 0.4% of the male population. That would suggest, by Rónán’s own figures, that male clergy are over three times more likely than the average Irish male to commit acts of sexual abuse on children.