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I think there is room for your plan and mine dependent on the circumstances.Now is not the time to give you my history with homosexuals in the priesthood. But I have for years written to pastors and the bishop about the problem amd received some interesting replies in response. It was clear that in this diocese,at least,the problem was going to be ignored,buried,spun and twisted.

I was at the point that I believed all homosexual priests should be stripped naked and sent on cattle cars throughout the country to be mocked and jeered at in public.

When this scandal first broke last year I immediately believed that it was necessary to have a plan and I suggested on Free Republic that the dioceses buy a couple of old monasteries and seminaries and isolate abusers and other sexual miscreants from society. I thought nuns,as I remember them in the fifties,would be great supervisors and governors. I continue to think that it is an idea whose time has come.

It would be particularly appropriate for those that either had a one time fall from grace for which they are truly repentent as well as those who have had several unproven accusations which may or may not be true. It would permit the bishops,priests and the laity to exercise justice and mercy which ,in fact,encourages honesty and truth telling.As you can see this in no way negates a much improved system of selection and formation,nor immediate action on receipt of a complaint,nor removal from the priesthood,nor civil action.

There would certainly be no justice in laicizing a priest for an unproven accusation. But if even one sexual act with a minor is admitted outside the private forum or proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court, I think that priest should be removed. Again, JMO.

OTOH, I do not favor laicizing a priest who has not acted on -- and who seeks help with resisting -- a sexual desire for minors. In such cases, Penguin Island strikes me as prudent, just and merciful for everyone. The Missionaries of Charity run a tight ship and still seem to be Wiccan-free, so they'd be my first choice as caretakers.