FReepers ordinarily are very wary of press reports because, as we well know, they are often biased or outright fraudulent in support of a particular political axe (usually liberal).
You suspend your disbelief because you want the worst to be true. I don't venture into your motivations for that desire.
But when you not only slander the Pope and the Church, but turn on your fellow FReepers as "defending those who rape children", you are "making it personal".
And by allowing yourself to react like Pavlov's dog not only to every slanderous media report, but to slander in turn those who try to point out the errors in those reports, you are betraying everything that Free Republic and free speech stands for.
You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.
Children were raped and the church covered it up. Those are facts which you and others like to refer to as slander.
You say that my personal involvement in the issue is blinding me? And you are not personally involved? Is it not your church that is at the center of the controversy?
Like Pavlov’s dog? And now you blame the victims?
Let me ask you American Mother, how big is your millstone?
Luke 17:2