Reflections on clericalism and sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

Bernard Moylan, retired priest living in Sydney, asks the big questions facing priesthood in the light of the Royal Commission: the clerical culture, mandatory celibacy and married priests. 

In an interview recently published in The Tablet, world-famous classical pianist, Stephen Hough, revealed that upon realising his homosexuality at an early age he decided to enter the Catholic priesthood. It was only the subsequent advice from a priest that he possessed an exceptional God-given talent, which he should use to its fullest extent, that finally dissuaded him from entering a seminary.