CALM DOWN!!!!!..please try not to be so harsh on the Catholic clergy until you check out the stats on Protestant clergy, teachers, scout leaders etc...I don't excuse any of them for a moment, but get it straight....all those other groups are FAR more guilty of child molestation than are Catholic clergy.....far more.
No they aren't because none of them pass themselves off as vicars of CHRIST.
Of anybody on the planet, those who claim responsibility for bringing us the Bible, for being the sole voice of Christ on the earth for hundreds or thousands of years, who take the high moral ground are FAR, FAR more responsible in the eyes of God and the world than those who make no such claim to religious and moral superiority.
They are without excuse in the greatest way.
"I don't excuse any of them for a moment, but "...
No *buts*. None at all. That completely negates the first part of the statement you made of *I don't excuse them for a moment....* and it's something we hear all too often from Catholics in their defense of their church.
The only way moral integrity is going to be restored to the Catholic church is to say *I don't excuse them for a moment*.
PERIOD.
No *buts*. None at all.
The appeal of *Hey, we're not as bad as anyone else because more of them do it too*, makes me want to vomit.
Anyone with that attitude is condoning what happened.
The mental, emotional, and SPIRITUAL damage done to those children and their families is inestimable. It is the WORST of the worst kind of betrayal because it absolutely destroys the image of God a child has when someone who claims to represent Him to them victimizes them in that kind of manner.
Until Catholics admit to the seriousness of the situation and renounce it completely and unconditionally, they are part of the problem. Otherwise they come across as being no different than the bishops and cardinals who protected the abusers by shuffling them around to victimize other children.
No they aren't.
The Catholic clergy are far more guilty because they know better.
The issue isn't that it happened. Sadly, stuff like that happens everywhere because there is simply no way of preventing it. Someone bound and determined to molest children WILL find a way.
The real atrocity is the Catholic church turning a blind eye to it, covering it up. protecting the priests, moving them around to molest more unsuspecting boys.
IOW, the RCC enabled the molesters. That makes them just as responsible as if they had done it themselves.
Even in a secular court of law, if someone does not prevent a crime that they know is occurring, they are culpable as well and can be charged and sentenced for the crime.
The Church hierarchy did nothing more than stand outside the door and keep an eye out for witnesses while the crimes were being committed.
And then they have the NERVE to *consecrate* the host, lifting it up in their hands, believing that they are turning the host into the body and blood of Jesus, with those same hands that molested those little boys.
How is that not worse than others doing it? How are teachers and scout leaders far more guilty of crime than that priest?
Oh?
Where's yer data?
The evidence...