I think it is very probable that many bishops came into office years after the offense,documentation showed that 1)it was not proven,or 2)it was excessive affection with no bare skin contact 3)counselling and treatment clearly stated that the priest was contrite,asked for forgiveness and never had a problem again,and made the decision that this man had fallen but would not succumb in the future.
I do believe Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and the successors of same,and I am willing to allow good Bishops,those that are in accord under the Holy Father,to make some decisions,that only he can have the knowledge and holiness to make.
I have watched my own bishop,who is the only one that I can observe first hand,and he needs to be removed or resign.Our bishop constantly stands truth on its head. He lies about just anything;altar rails,Latin Mass,school closings,exiting Orders,priest shortage and on and on.Once you know a man cannot be trusted with little things you know he will lie about big things. He was still mouthing how we were ahead of the curve with respect to our harrassment policies all the while harboring all sorts of unfit priests who were supporting all kinds of unCatholic causes,blatently living with their same sex partners,burning churches,allowing porno to be filmed on an altar,exhibiting themselves in public(several),paying money to shut people up,allowing priest treated and found to be a risk around women and children to be placed at a church with a school and it goes on and on. But what is really frightening is that people here are not up in arms,they had a very successful diocesan fund drive and they cheer the perverted priests when they see them. Scary,scary.
Many of our bishops are very bad and they must be removed but in the process let us use great caution to ensure that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. That would suit that ole enemy just fine. And,I do think unless cooler heads prevail that's where we are headed. We need to pray.
In case anyone's making book,I will say that one third of our bishops are actually perverts or covering up for same,and they must go. Anybody want to hazard their own guess on the percentages?.
And I thought we had it bad in Boston. Who is your bishop?
Yes, there are surely such cases. Unwanted attention or affection which does not involve genital contact or nudity, of course, is not rape and in a very different category. There are various types of affection or sexual attention which fall short of abuse or molestation in the technical sense.
Some of these other areas of Catholic life (liturgy, sacraments, iconoclasm in sacred art & architecture, theology, doctrine, higher education, wacky liberal nuns, etc.) are perhaps just as disturbing in some ways in that they do permanent damage to faith as well, sometimes destroying entire institutions, parishes, universities, seminaries, or religious orders. Bishops have to promote the entirety of Catholicism and Catholic culture throughout all the institutions of the Church. A bishop who tolerates anti-Catholic agitation at the local Catholic college or allows a religious order full of liberal kooks to run wild damages the Church. Where the rights of the laity to have access to proper Catholic teaching and sacramental practice are abused, the whole Church suffers. As an example, what the American Jesuits have done to Catholic educational institutions in this country is every bit as damaging as being sodomized. It's the metaphorical-intellectual variation of being sodomized.