Well, I don't think there are any easy answers. I'm not convinced that anybody knows how to solve the problem of pedophilia. It's not fair to say that the Catholic Church did nothing about the problem (but it IS fair to say they botched it badly). In the 1970's, dioceses spent millions on treatment centers - and that was an age when we all believed that there were or would soon be psychiatric techniques to cure every problem. It was an age when people viewed such things as illnesses more than crimes. Remember the emphasis on "rehabilitation" in correctional institutions of the time? But anyway, they built a number of huge treatment centers, and they spent megabucks paying the operators of the centers. They believed that when a priest had completed the program, he would be completely cured.

My response that dioceses acted in good faith by sending pedophile priests to treatment centers is only part of the answer. It's also very true that many cases were ignored or covered up. Some of that was callous and criminal, some was a fear of facing consequences, some of it was due to an inability to believe that well-known and well-loved priests could do such horrible things, and some just stupidity. The U.S. Catholic Church has paid a heavy price for these failings, and it will continue to pay for at least the next decade or so. In my diocese, every victim was paid a million dollars, whether there was evidence to back the claim or not. Property was sold to pay the claims, and half the staff of the diocesan central office was laid off. Every employee and every volunteer who works with children is fingerprinted and given training on sex offenses. In the United States, four dioceses have filed for bankruptcy or are very close to doing so. Most priests with credible allegations of sex offenses, have been removed from ministry.

We're in a different age now, an age that emphasizes punishment as the only response to crime - and more punishment if the orignal punishment didn't work. It's very easy now to look back at incidents that happened thirty years ago, and to say that all those priests should have been arrested and convicted. But that's a simplistic response. Criminal prosecution and huge financial settlements are not going to stop pedophilia, and they are not going to heal the victims. Both prosecution and compensation are necessary, but more and more money and more and more jail time aren't the total solution.

I think a good start would be for us to acknowledge that our society does not really know how to deal with sex offenders. The Catholic Church certainly failed horribly in this matter. At the very least, it should have referred every suspected crime to the police and it should have removed sex offender priests from ministry. But really, nobody has an answer. California has laws that make it extremely difficult for convicted sex offenders to find a home once they are released from prison, so now we have a problem of sex offenders living with our homeless population. We've given up on the idea of treating sex offenders, so now we just put them in prison for longer terms and then release them in a more dangerous state than before they were convicted. But at least we've satisfied the electorate by making the punishment draconian.

As a society, our primary response to sex offenses has been to point the finger of blame at somebody and demand that they pay a heavy price for their misdeeds. And yes, there IS blame, serious blame - and the people who have done wrong must pay for their wrongdoing. The trouble is, when we blame others, we don't see how we ourselves have also been unable to resolve the problem.

As long as the problem continues to exist, we as a society have an obligation to work to resolve it. Those who are directly to blame must certainly be punished - but that isn't the total answer. And the fact of the matter is that we don't have an answer to the problem of pedophilia.

-Joe Offer-

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Spaw, with regards to your comment:

The religious right, pedophile priests, racism from the pulpit, condoning those who attend church and yet torture because this is God's country, child abuse through the interpretation of scripture..............................yeah........Now someone tell me that religion is still a wonderful thing.

That's a cheap shot, Spaw. Most churches and most church-going people don't condone any of that.