Hee Hee Hee, now this Catholic can make hateful remarks about all pastors, like many of you do about Catholic priests.
Wait I choose to take the high road. I feel your helplessness toward all the hate that will be coming your way. Keep defending your faith. Man is corrupt, God is not.
Got a question.....you own a Bible? And if so do you read it?
Well now, let's not pretend we can just sweep a couple thousand years of institutional boy-buggering under the carpet.
Where do you think all these other pastors got the idea from?
Father Tony Lehman, in particular, always had a smile on his face, and knew everyone on campus by their first names. At the time, there were 2000 undergrads at GU.
Fr. Gerry Kohls, SJ was one of three priests I had as professors there. He was my Philosophy professor my senior year. His class had 14 students, twelve of whom were philosophy or theology majors studying for the priesthood. Starting out, I was a fish out of water.
I was flummoxed when I received an A on my first assignment. When I met with him, his guidance has stayed fresh over 45+ years: with philosophy, it's not what you say, it's how you say it, because philosophy is nothing but a bunch of BS.
A priest who graduated two years ahead of me was none other than Robert Spitzer, a brilliant priest who has written numerous books, and made many telecasts on EWTN. He is one of the most dynamic speakers I have ever encountered.
Those men embody the spirit of the Society of Jesus for me.
About 20 years ago, during the worst of the Catholic scandals, my parish came up with a simple, but very effective solution. When a child was in a class, or meeting with any adult (or priest), a second adult was required to be present.
It has been an effective policy from Day One. I don't think we started it specifically, but it's certainly widespread.
I taught mostly on Wednesday nights, and there were six teachers for the two classes. One night I arrived to learn the other five teachers couldn't make it that evening, so the task of teaching 40 5th graders was left to me.
The program director checked on me often, though it wasn't that necessary. It was an interesting night, as the subject was Agape love. While they were watching a short video, I pulled the concepts from a book published by Father Spitzer, titled "Healing the Culture."
I was a bit over the top, saying the Holy Spirit was with us, because I was a fellow alum of Fr. Spitzer, I read his book, and I attended a lecture of his on the subject at an alumni reunion.
It turned into a special night: these 6th graders were participating in our discussion, and asking questions that were above their grade level. There were no interruptions during that 45 minutes of discussion.
Sorry for being so off topic, but the church in question will be better off by attacking the problem quickly, and delivering the proper solution.