1. The Cardinals in charge back to 1960 or so new of these abuses and chose to hide them from Public view and from the Law.
2.. The Bishops and the clergy who supported this stupid practice of deceit and secrecy are just as guilty as the Cardinals.
3. These clergy didn't care a wit about the children who were abused, they only worried about covering their own asses.
4. If they had an ounce of christian charity in their souls they would have protected and ministered to the victims and gotten rid of the perverts.
The entire problem is one of Management that chose to allow these crimes to continue and never stepped in to stop the abuse..
Last week I thought the Church Might recover but now I don't think it is worth the effort and I have decided not to participate in weekly masses..
There is so much evil within the church and so much Arrogance in the Hierarchy I wouldn't know who to trust.
I am over 60 years old and can still count how many times I have missed Mass.
Cardinal Law shouldn't be allowed to resign, He should be thrown out.
As for the Church's hierarchy, well, they're people and they screw up. I doubt if any prince of the Church has ever taken lightly a case in which a priest has been accused of being a pedophile or a pederast. Whether they got it right or not, I'm sure they always proceeded with one eye on the damage and scandalization (such as you evince now) that openly defrocking a priest would entail.
The Church has operated secluded retreat facilities for impaired priests for ages. If they didn't get the job done, that's a sign of the intractability of homosexuality in some people, which not being psychiatrists themeselves, the Church may not have been equipped -- ever -- to handle.
Homosexuality and pederasty is a social problem that we haven't even begun to get our arms around yet, partly because of the political activity and interference of the "gay-rights" crowd.