This is starting to become a platform for anti catholic sentiments.

An objective analysis of the situation suggests, first, that the Catholic church is no worse than others when it comes to the incidence of child molesters in its ranks. Second, whatever the failings of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with this appalling problem (and they are legion), those sins pale in comparison to the blatant hypocrisy of the Church's enemies here on this issue.

In fact, some of those adversaries inadvertently assist the process of placing the scandal in context.Approximately 5 percent of priests have a predilection toward minors. That seems consistent with other clergy who are not priests, such as Protestant ministers or rabbis.

Robert Bell,a psychologist affirmed that the percentage of abusers among Catholic priests is no higher than among Protestant ministers.

Why, then, the disproportionate focus on problems within the Catholic Church here? Is it "let's attack the catholic church".

Then there is also the status of the Catholic Church as the most visible, powerful religious institution in the world. General resentment of organized religion will often focus on the Church of Rome, the most centrally organized and hierarchical faith on earth.

Finally, many attacks centre on the tradition of priestly celibacy, in a spasm of trendy Catholic-bashing that reflects the basest sort of inconsistency. Gay activists and establishment opinion leaders unequivocally insist that homosexual identity is innate and inborn as blue eyes or left-handedness. These same enlightened thinkers then turn around and say that celibacy in the priesthood pushes prelates to paedophilia. If only priests were allowed to marry, the conventional wisdom declares, then they wouldn't even feel tempted to molest little boys.

This proposition contradicts basic liberal assumptions about gay identity.If a priest is congenitally gay how could marriage ever re-wire his orientation? This might work only if the Church sanctioned same-sex marriage for its priests, a radical demand that few critics of celibacy dare to advance.


This uncomfortable question touches another illogical position of those who want to use this scandal as an excuse to attack a traditionalist church. The same people expressing the most strident condemnation of gay priests molesting young boys, also demand public pressure to force the Boy Scouts to embrace gay scout masters – insisting that such leaders present no danger to our sons.

I feel confident that the Church will eventually clean house and deal with the problems of its clergy. But leftwing critics of the Church here may never come to grips with the obvious internal contradictions in their own irrational ideas.