[Mrluvaluva]

A Roman Catholic bishop in Mexico has sparked outrage by suggesting eroticism on television and internet pornography were to blame for child sex abuse by priests.

He also claimed sex education in schools was making it more difficult for priests to remain celibate.

Bishop Felipe Arizmendi was speaking before the Pope arrived in Malta where he is expected to meet victims of abuse by Catholic priests.

"With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it's not easy to stay celibate or to respect children," he told an annual meeting of bishops near Mexico City.

"If on television and on the internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste.

"Obviously when there is generalised sexual freedom it's more likely there could be cases of paedophilia," he added.

His comments have been denounced by the Mexican Association for Sexual Health, a group of professional counsellors and educators.

"Those of good conscience in the church should stop this absurdity and find good help," the group said in a statement.

"Blaming the problems that the Catholic Church has had with priests' sexually abusing minors on sex education makes no sense," it added. "It borders on the pathetic."

Bishop Arizmendi's comments follow a series of controversial remarks by senior Catholic clergy about the child sex abuse scandal.

On Monday the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said paedophilia amongst priests was linked to homosexuality not celibacy.

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia," he said. "But many others have shown that there is," he said.

The Vatican was hit by another embarrassing revelation this week when a website posted a letter by a senior cardinal congratulating a French bishop in 2001 for not denouncing a self-confessed abusive priest to the police.


SKY

Absurd and totally outrageous!