[marshmallow]

(As a footnote, critics these days sometimes seem to be demanding an imperial papacy ... calling to mind the old bit of advice, “Be careful what you wish for.”)

Very good, John.

He might have added that this is on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the same critics are demanding a lesser role for the papacy and encouraging Catholics to ditch the Pope.

[livius]

Pardon me while I laugh about the “American way.” It’s a total sham, applied by bishops only to people they don’t like, only when they want to do so, and conveniently not applied to anybody they do like.

[cripplecreek]

Its easy to become enamoured with the idea of zero tolerance but setting standards and proving guilt often don’t fit well with zero tolerance.

Every time we see zero tolerance rules imposed, we see a lot of innocent punished along with the guilty. Think of the preschooler sent home for drawing a picture of a gun or the teenager expelled for giving a friend am asprin.

I’m not Catholic but I sympathize with the battle Catholics are fighting. Back in the late 80s a lot of primarily Baptist churches were raided due to allegations of whole congregations molesting children. Families were split up, churches were divided and closed but in the end, only a tiny fraction of the people affected were found to have done anything wrong.

Right near where I live some 29 children were removed from their homes. It was eventually determined that social workers were coaching small children to give the answers the prosecution wanted to hear.

[RnMomof7]

But the Pope said he was not “in charge” of the various dioceses that the Bishops are.. so maybe they should just do it..

[LadyDoc]

There’s a world of difference between a priest who’s a serial rapist of pre-pubescent children, and a priest who had a consensual encounter with a teenager 20 years ago. Policies that ignore or downplay such distinctions, they argue, risk remedying one injustice with another.

that about summarizes it up.

And that doesn't even count false accusations, false memory syndrome, or someone who was a lover and now decides to cry rape.