The guilty ones should have their testicles removed using a branch trimmer or a tin scissors. Just make sure they are guilty, and the accusation isn't the proof.
I attended a seminary for four years during a time when I have read homsexuallity was rampant in United Staes seminaries. I must have been mightily unattractive because I was never propositioned a single time by priest or student.
The same holds true during my altar boy years. Our pastor had a contrary personality and went through about six curates in the eight years of my grade school days. Not one of them made untoward advances, although I discovered years later that one of them, incidentally my favorite of those days, died of AIDS. He didn't get it in a blood transfusion. The rumor was he picked it up from adults.
The long and short of it is, even the homosexual, or the one I learned was, and all the rest were basically decent men as far as I can tell. Many of them worked long and hard to drill an education into me.
I realize my story is anecdotal. I simply refuse to believe the majority or even a large minority or Catholic priests are living breathing Lucifers. The bad ones should be strung up. Bishops we can prove to be enablers should be strung up along side them.
I just know the accusation isn't proof.
Yes, that's a sorry thing to say.
Because it's not a "hard to get a handle on."
Roman Catholic priests rape children in their care because the "celibate" priesthood calls men who prefer the company of other men to the company of women and children.
And has for centuries.
Nobody ever said it was.
I'll repeat it again for anyone unbiased enough to read a non-Catholic opinion without reading into it what they want.
Everyone recognizes that abuse is going to happen. It's virtually impossible to prevent.
That's not the issue here or in the trial. The problem is that the abuse was known and nothing was done about it except measures to protect the priests. They weren't disciplined, or defrocked, or turned over to the authorities. They were covered up and moved around and basically given access to fresh game.
Sexual abuse has been an issue in the Catholic church for over a thousand years. Just how long are people expected to not speak up about it? How long are people expected to wait for something to be done?
In non-Catholic situations, say, public schools for example, the perps are arrested and charged and the districts participate with the authorities in seeing justice done. It's a sad state of affairs that the Catholic church cannot do as well as public schools in addressing the issue of abusers in their midst.
THAT'S the issue.
If the Catholic church had acted appropriately when abuse was found out, nobody would have anything to criticize them for. All the flak they're taking is their own fault. They have no one to blame but themselves.
Just wondering if you're a priest...