This was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 yesterday:

...At university in the seventies, I was elected president of the Student's Representative Council at a time when my university had no counselling service. One day a 20 year old student came into my office and ask if he could speak to me. He first told me that he felt called by God to the priesthood. And then he said that he wanted to admit to a sexual attraction to children.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "Because," he said, "I can't keep this secret any longer. It's too dangerous. I need to tell somebody. And I need to promise somebody that I will never ever harm children."

What would you have done? I never knew his name. Had he said he was a sex offender, my response would have been clear and straightforward. But this was different. He had somehow found the courage to admit to a potential he swore he would never pursue.

Punishment after the event is not enough. Children will have been hurt. Yet we can't castrate or criminalise people who admit that there is within themselves a tendency they never wanted to be born with.

Is it possible to affirm the potential for good that is in them, while holding them accountable for ensuring that they are the only ones who will ever deal with the demons inside?

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20100322.shtml

It's good to see that the question is being raised on a programme that reaches many of the leaders in opinion in the UK; let's hope it leads to greater understanding. The speaker was John Bell - see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Bell

though as a biography, it's not very informative!