[sinkspur]

These things must have occurred before,

Of course they did.

But, as Cardinal Spellman told one of his boytoys who asked him how he tolerated the hypocrisy, he said "Who would believe it"?

(And before the hate mail starts, I'm merely quoting a Howie Carr column running on FR today. Spellman was a notorious gay, but was powerful enough to keep all evidence of it out of the New York Press)

Nobody would believe priests would abuse young boys, and many bishops used that gullibility to berate the victims into silence.

[maryz]

I know about Spellman; I read Howie Carr and usually hear his show. But even Howie hasn't said he was known to abuse children.

Do you think -- or have any way of knowing -- whether the incidence of molesting children was the same or lower or higher in earlier decades? Was it merely better secrecy that kept priests trusted?