[caww]

could you honestly say that about all the priests?

Without question....they are not taking a unified stand. if there is a bad priest etc. we are to look beyond the faulty human tool

Well I can assure you Christ isn't looking beyond their sin...come on Cronos..call it what it is...a great sin against God. And God is trying to get your people to move on filth in your church....they didn't and so now the world knows and still they are worse than slow to act sufficiently.

the Church is tightening control over regional bishopsx

Now isn't that like asking the fox to guard the hen house? The church from top to bottom IS the problem. From Rome who moved these Pastors about...to parents who thought more of their Priests than their own children. From top to bottom the house needs to be cleaned out.

[Cronos]

"Without question....they are not taking a unified stand" --> actually, you are wrong. They are and there are many good priests who do speak out -- I would suggest you do drop in any nearby Catholic parishes and see the number of good priests

And of course Christ is looking at the sins of the priests and bishops and pastors -- these pastors are held to a higher standard, that is why in Dante's Inferno, the path to hell is lined with the skulls of bishops. If a shepherd does not adequately shepherd his flock, he will be judged very severely.

The job of the flock is to follow The Good shepherd, Christ, to focus on Him, not on the sub-shepherds who have not one level of the ability of The Shepherd. Yet, the sheep are not to huddle away and form their own flocks with their own leaders because those sheep without shepherds are prone to wolves (from J Smith to Ellen G White to the Taize movement etc).

The focus is to be always on The Shepherd, not on the sub-shepherds/pastors.

[Cronos]

Actually, no -- the problem was that Rome up until JPII's last years was still too many fiefdoms and not enough pastoral control. You see the same problem now in Germany. However, since JPII's time he has been slowly replacing the bishops in the US (as they retire or get chucked out) with conservative ones -- that's why we have the guys who refuse communion to apostate cino politicians, that's why we have the bishop in Australia who said cino politicians who support abortion should stop saying they are good Catholics etc.

Remember, the focus to be on God, JEsus Christ,not on the pastor

[Cronos]

Here is a very good article on Confession among Lutherans