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I'll bet that at any time the “powers that be” within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church could identify EVERY priest, bishop and other clergy who have a history of this criminal behavior and also could at any given moment put their collective feet down and remove every one from public ministry until they are either cleared or incarcerated.

I'm afraid that the reason this has not been done so far is because it is even more wide-spread than imaginable and it goes very high up the chain. I also think a big reason is that many parrishes would find themselves leaderless and the church cannot afford to lose their monetary support. That, I think, is the primary reason why this terrible problem will drag on for years to come and that there will continue to be new victims who will face a lifetime of shame, regret and lost faith.

One more thing, this is NOT a new problem within the church. It has gone on for many, many centuries and we are seeing the severe consequences of ignoring sin and allowing the criminals to continue in their sins unsupervised and unrepentant. God only knows the millions of lives effected by this scandal and only God can bring justice and healing to those who were and are harmed physically, emotionally and spiritually.

This is NOT a Catholic only issue as we are all commanded, who are members of the body of Christ, to live holy lives that bring glory and honor to our Savior and to purge from among us those who try to corrupt this body from within. We must ever turn our backs on this again nor think it is not our business. It IS our business because it reflects on us all who name the name of Christ.

boatbums, you have hit the nail on the head here. AND because the media often equates Christianity with Catholicism, all Christianity is devalued in the eyes of nonChristians when the leadership of the Catholic Church fails to be Christ-like.

the reason this has not been done so far is because it is even more wide-spread than imaginable and it goes very high up the chain. I also think a big reason is that many parrishes would find themselves leaderless and the church cannot afford to lose their monetary support. That, I think, is the primary reason why this terrible problem will drag on for years to come and that there will continue to be new victims who will face a lifetime of shame, regret and lost faith.

Exactly and good post!