Vatican denies celibacy led to sex abuse scandals

The Vatican has strongly denied that its celibacy requirement is the root of the sex abuse scandals convulsing the church in Europe and has again defended Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of the crisis.

An article in Sunday’s editions of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano shot down suggestions that the celibate priesthood was to blame for the “deviant behaviour” of a small number of clerics.