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What is apparent, however, is that the church and the priests will have a tough time refuting any claims, which likely will result in claimants getting at least some monetary settlement.

Why will refuting claims be hard? There's either evidence or not; the priest is either believeable, or he's not believeable. If the diocese settles with someone who has no case, then the people running it are even bigger fools than they now appear to be.

What is irrefutable, however, is that some bishops, Mahoney among them, are not cooperating with prosecutors or the lay review board. There's no excuse for this.

Do you feel sorry for these people because they've got to deal with these claims? They brought this on themselves, with the decades of cover-up.

I'm Catholic, like you, and if my Texas bishop were embarrassing the entire US Church, I would expect you would ride herd on him, just as I'm doing on Mahoney.

Sorry, but you simply just don't get it. You seem to refuse to recognize that there is a law that has been passed in CA that were the same law passed in regard to any other issue, you and most all other Freepers would be up in arms. You refuse to recognize that fact. CA is not TX. I don't know s**t from shinola about what is happening in Catholic churches in TX. What makes you think you really know what is happening out here?

And your argument that a falsely accused priest of some supposed crime 30 years ago can easily defend himself is nonsense. As an example, there resides a monsignor in my parish rectory who says mass and administers a nearby chapel on weekends. His main job is to assist the Bishop of the diocese. An adult woman who won a molestation lawsuit against another priest, then turned around and filed a molestation case against this monsignor. She claimed that she had consulted with him one time for assistance on the original molestation case and that he came on to her in their meeting.

This all supposedly happened quite a few years ago. In fact, the monsignor claims he did not recall ever meeting the woman, who, by the way, did not even live in his parish at the time. The monsignor was so PO'd, especially as he is a rather public figure in the diocese, that he filed suit against the woman for defamation of character. Well, the judge dismissed his lawsuit without it even going to trial. She subsequently dropped her suit. Just where does this monsignor go to get his reputation back???? Here is a guy who had a good chance of being appointed a Bishop in a few years. What are his chances now?

Have you ever been sued? I have. My crazy neighbor sued me twice on trumped up claims. He lost twice. He also has been engaged in 25 lawsuits in the last 20 years. My point is that just as there are emotionally disturbed priests out there, there are emotionallly disturbed and/or unethical lay people ready to hop on the sexual molestation bandwagon. This situation is not as black and white as you make it out to be.