Yes, Hitler was born into a Catholic family and baptized as an infant. I've never seen any indication he practiced the Catholic religion as an adult.

Let me add something for consideration. As many of you know, I was in a Catholic seminary for eight years of a 12-year program. I attended four years of high school and four years of college in the seminary of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and I really loved my time there and got a good education. I have to say, however, that in about my second year of college, there was a "sexual charge" to the atmosphere that seemed unhealthy. Sometimes, I wondered if I was the only straight guy in the place. That was our last year in the 6-year "minor seminary." As we prepared to move to the "major" seminary, we went through a battery of psychological tests, and we were all interviewed at length by psychiatrists. One Monday morning early in our Junior year of college, several of my classmates were missing - they were all the ones I thought of as "squirrelly" - there was just something strange about their sexuality. After that purge, the sexual atmosphere dissipated almost completely, and there was a much healthier feel to the atmosphere. I guess that didn't solve the problem completely. Out of twenty or so in my class who were ordained from my class, two have been accused of sex offenses. One is still functioning as a priest, and the other is not - as I said above, I didn't hear the whole story on either one.

I'm now in the Sacramento diocese in California, and this diocese has always had a majority of foreign-born priests. The diocese is now working with the Sacramento County District Attorney to get a former priest extradited from Mexico to face trial for sex offenses committed in the 1980's and 1990's. The man left the priesthood and fled to Mexico when the crimes were first reported.

I'm sure there have been many times when Catholic parishioners and employees have not cooperated with investigations of sex offender priests. Very often, child molesters are charming people, and people just can't believe their beloved priest did something wrong. Oftentimes, people just can't believe such horrible accusations could be true, especially when the offender is well-loved.

It's a complicated puzzle to sort out. Don't be too quick to point the finger of blame. I've had the privilege of working with churches, Scouts, and other volunteer organizations all my life. Most of the people I work with are wonderfully idealistic. There trouble is, they are often as unrealistic as they are idealistic. When they encounter crime, they are completely overwhelmed and have no idea what to do. I guess I'm still pretty idealistic myself, but my 25 years as a federal investigator also gave me a good dose of realism and a good network of law enforcement connections. There have been a number of occasions when church and Scout people have asked me what to do in various situations, and they've followed through on what I've advised. The ones who contacted me never, ever tried to cover anything up, and they were always very concerned about wanting to to the right thing. Yes, there have been coverups - but there also have been a lot of situations where people did the best they could.

-Joe-