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I will also admit that preventing scandal at great cost to victims is not right, but it is also not accurate to protray most of what happened as unthinking or deliberate. In Boston in particular, medical advice prompted returning offenders to pastoral service.

You've got to be kidding! A priest molests a young boy, a report is made to the bishop, and, in almost every case, the bishop did nothing!

Only when it appeared that a priest had a "problem," (i.e., he raped more than one boy), was he referred to psychologists.

I don't think this was unthinking at all; it was one hundred percent deliberate!

Bishops moved priests who had molested young boys, allowing them to continue to molest.

Read that again.

If a priest had an affair with a woman, and then another, he would be asked to reconsider his vocation.

These guys? "Here Father. A chance for a fresh start!"

Your attempt at de minimis in comparing Catholic clergy to others is a smokescreen.

It is not the number involved, after all, but the way the offenses were handled.

In the case of Protestants, they were turned over the law.

In the case of Catholics, they got a nice, shiny new assignment.

I agree that any Catholic priest molesting a person under the age of consent should be turned in to the police and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I think there is not a punishment in our judicial code that can adequately address the crime perpetrated by these men. The Church may excommunicate, after all they deliberately besmirched the trust and sacred duty of the priesthood.

The actions of the bishops and (esp. Cardinal Law) the leadership of the Church in reaction to the reports of abuse are reprehensible. See above retribution.

I also wonder that these priests were not reported to the proper law enforcement agencies by victim's families upon discovery of molestation. Certainly they would be prosecuted much like the local Baptist minister in my community. I also wonder at the motivation of these families who accepted what I consider to be "blood money" from the Church in exchange for their silence who now cry foul. Taking a bribe is just as bad as offering one and to do so makes you a willing participant in collusion with the offending party.

The liberal movements within the Catholic Church (sexual liberalism, socialist organizations etc.) that became so popular in the sixties/seventies and dominated many seminaries and organizations certainly had a role in attracting such sick people to the church. The fear of exposure by the Church's PR people most likey exacerbated it.

To equate this scandal to the totality of the Church however, is inappropriate and is not unlike equating the totality of America with its history of slavery, Jim Crow laws and continuing charges of racism. This is just one part of the Church, an ugly part, that does not balance the view of a Church that has noble priests, faithful, hardworking organizations (Catholic Charities), scholars and writers and schools that actually educate our children, not fill them with leftist propaganda and unearned self-esteem without the assistance of public funds. The Church that has inspired the work of great artists.

As a Catholic mother, I am vigilant with my son's time and exposure to our priest (unearned and unjustified--he is a kind, selfless man who has never done anything to deserve this approach) but I don't believe in taking chances with my child. On the other hand, I also transmit my admiration for his work and my son looks on him as a role model or even a hero. Father is very careful to always have other church personnel present when he is with the children as well.

It is my hope and prayer that the criminally ill men in the priesthood are purged and their leadership be peopled with men of principle, courage and righteousness. I have the same hope and prayer for the teachers of our children and the leaders of our country.

Shielding homosexuals (and lesbians) from preying on young adolescents is not the sole purview of American Catholic Dioceses. See the Supreme Court of the United States, NAMBLA, GAYPRIDE, The American Psychiatric Association, the United Way, The American Free Press, The American Library Association, the Village Voice and The State of California, any organization or school that has banned the Boy Scouts from meeting on their premesis, and the Democratic Party, Hollyweird, -- and other gay/lesbian organizations that I don't make a practice of becoming familiar with. I think it was Cher who really turned my stomach when she thought it was "a wonderful experience" that her daughter "discovered" she was gay when "exposed" to it at 17 by her lesbian nanny.

A priest molests a young boy, a report is made to the bishop, and, in almost every case, the bishop did nothing!

99% the cases did not involve young boys.

Priests who violate a trust, who break their vows of chastity, do serious wrong! Nevertheless, anger reserved for pederasts or pedophiles is not used appropriately against the vast majority of incidents involving priests, at least in the U.S. Again, 99% of the incidents involved teenaged boys (13 - 17 years). These were not individuals who were totally unaquainted with sex or sexuality (ever heard of MTV, VH1, rap music, Madonna, etc., etc). Liberal media may want to convey the idea that adult men preyed upon little boys, but in 99% of the cases, it was adult men seducing adolescent young men. In Europe, where in many countries the age of consent is 16, many of these cases would not even be illegal.

...the bishop did nothing!

Again, accurate facts reveal this not to be essentially true. What happened, in the majority of cases, was therapy, leaves of absence, and, with psychiatric advice, a return to pastoral duties. Now we know, unfortunately, that this is not effective action. The sadness is, it may have been unavoidable, if only church law had been observed thirty years ago.

Canon law prohibits the ordination of homosexual men. That law was ignored for a long time in a large number of dioceses. It will not be ignored any longer. 99% of the cases were homosexual in nature, not pedophilic. Had canon law been observed, this would not have happened.