Respectfully, I disagree that this is the scandal that’s eating the heart out of the US Catholic Church. Having had a pastor who molested young boys in iur parish and knowing one of the victims, I have to say the church turning a blind eye to this for years is the biggest scandal.
iur=our
There have been 57 million babies killed by abortion.
But that is gone. Pope Benedict sent emissaries to the seminaries to inspect them and make sure everything was as it should be.
Seminaries are now overflowing with straight young men who WANT to be priests.
Also always remember that it is not celibacy, but rather homosexuality that causes pedophilia.
Now can we get back to the subject of this thread?
Pastors, Protestants included, are human beings who sin. They aren't ANY better than anyone else in the world. And, boys have been molested by men (priest, rabbis and ministers included) since the beginning of the human race.
HALF/MUCH of the blame has to be on the mother/women of the family who KNEW what daddy was doing to their sons but ignored it for whatever reason. They KNEW and did nothing to confront the abusive father or protect their son.
Back in the 1960's the Catholic Church was glad to receive these new men, homosexuals, into the Church. The Church has always told us to hate the sin, not the sinner.
Unfortunately, homosexuality, bisexuality and asexuality are CHOICES, as we are all genetically heterosexual. Those CHOICES, is seems, are made when children are in their early to mid teens, 13-15 years of age when they really don't have the maturity to envision what their CHOICES entail. (Googled this.)
So those children made their choice NOT to be heterosexual. They also KNEW it was wrong but did it any way. Are they to be held to a lower standard than the rest of us?
They might not have had the wherewithal to resist the impulse at 13-15 but, at 18 and older, they KNEW what they were doing was anathema to EVERYONE in every faith on the planet earth, but let it happen and didn't change it.
We really DON'T KNOW exactly what the Church knew and didn't know. "Turning a blind eye" isn't QUITE what they did. They weren't heavily into the psychology of it all. They are now and filter those men with a fine tooth comb.
You MIGHT say "too little, too late," but that is NOT so for those boys who won't be molested.
Where were the parents/family and friends of that poor molested boy in your parish? Did NO ONE notice his demeanor? No child can hide those feelings very well or for very long. What happened to that priest? How is that victim doing these days? Well, I hope.
I remember an Irish priest in our parish who smelled of whiskey. I smelled it ONLY in the confessional. Father Casey.
The molested child and the unborn child are equally human beings in the estimation of God and the Catholic Church. Molesting children and aborting the unborn are horrendous sins. Are you REALLY arguing that molesting, however horrible, is actually worse than dismembering and murdering the unborn?
Another way to put it would be: If you could wave a magic wand and end one or the other of these sins once and for all but not affect the other, which would it be? End all abortions or end all molestations? You can choose only one.