Conservative catholics can believe in celibate pedophiles, but their standards are not the same as mine.

Ethan Edwards is the co-founder of Virtuous Pedophiles. Blog posts reflect his personal views, and are not statements from the organization.

In my online explorations, I hear different reactions to virtuous or celibate pedophiles.

One group whose voice I sometimes hear online are serious Catholics. Here's an example of such a group. Some other Christians feel similarly. Their religion tells them not to hate sinners, so they spare us the "bullet to the head" vitriol. And while they have no tolerance for child sex abuse, it is one element of a much larger group of sexual practices they oppose — everything but sex inside a heterosexual marriage. They obviously know secular society doesn't work that way at all, so they seem somewhat resigned. As a result, their rage against child sex abuse seems to also be muted.

It has another curious effect, though. Given how limited the realm of proper sexual activity is, they think it is natural, right, and feasible for a good person to resist sexual temptation. So when they hear of the concept of celibate pedophiles, they believe us — yes, anyone is capable of lifelong celibacy.

In contrast, the rest of society sees this as a very difficult thing to do. Our supporters think we deserve respect and congratulations to commit to celibacy and follow through. Our detractors think it means most of us will abuse kids eventually if we aren't already doing so.

Like most Christians, these conservative Catholics believe that thoughts can be sinful, so they also oppose thinking of oneself as a pedophile and certainly oppose entertaining erotic fantasies involving children.

This viewpoint is something of a small detail among pedophile-related issues, but as I've said before, I've covered the big issues as I see them and do not feel inspired just now to argue them again.

About the author: Ethan Edwards is a pseudonym. I am a pedophile, always celibate, and I have never seen child pornography. My attraction is strongest to girls around 4 years old, but I am also attracted to girls and women up through their 30s or beyond. Now in my late 60s, I'm divorced and living alone. I was married for over 10 years and was heavily involved with raising my 3 daughters. For most of my career I was a successful software engineer. I am very unusual for a pedophile in that I didn't realize that I was one until I was in my 50s—but it was there all along. I am angry that we all must remain silent or risk losing everything. That was my mindset when I co-founded Virtuous Pedophiles in 2012. I soon learned of the the terror of the typical pedophile who realizes as a teenager that his attraction isn't going to go away, who has nowhere to turn for help. The injustice I am most passionate about is the harsh legal penalties imposed on pedophiles who passively view illegal images of children. I stepped down from my role as a director of Virtuous Pedophiles early in 2024 and am delighted to pass the mantle on to a younger generation. This content was taken from Ethan's longstanding blog, Celibate Pedophiles. Some of the titles and taglines have been edited for their inclusion at thepword.

You can see an earlier version of the blog at the wayback machine.

This content was removed from blogspot in 2020 because the platform banned the author's account, giving only a vague reason.

the p word is a collection of 321 articles, blogs, podcasts and threads in the voices of pedophiles and others who oppose adult child sexual contact and sexual exploitation of children. Despite our mainstream views, this content is frequently removed from social media or blog sites because openly discussing pedophile attractions or avowing them are not tolerated. Our side of the conversation continues here.

editor at the p word net | Except where stated, all images are AI and do not depict real people. | Download the whole site.

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