Jim, I'm not sure you caught what I was trying to say - the bishop's offices (chancery) in many Catholic dioceses I've encountered, are staffed with creepy priests who aren't the type who can make it in parish life. Parishes are largely isolated from one another, especially in dioceses where the chancery is corrupt. So it is possible for parish priests not to know what is going on in other parishes. But yes, I can see that many diocesan chancery offices are repressive places where secrets may be jealously guarded - with even the bishop unaware of much of what's going on.

Yeah, celibacy is a burden for a lot of my priest friends, and I suppose many have been romantically tied to someone of the same or another sex at one time or another - but most parish priests I know deal with celibacy pretty well most of the time. I don't believe they spend their lives resenting celibacy or scheming to break their vows, even if they slip now and then. If they're halfway decent priests, they're compassionate, generous people who are able to make friends - and their lay friends do a lot to help them get through life on an even keel. They tend to stay away from priests and others from the "repressive" parishes. Some parishes are healthy, and some are not. Healthy priests tend to do their best to stay away from unhealthy parishes - it's a matter of survival.

I don't know if there's a good psychological profile of a priest who molests or abuses children. I would think it would be the creepy, swishy ones - but I have been surprised to learn that many of the priests I knew who were accused of molestation, were people who seemed to me to be quite normal in high school and college. They weren't the creepy ones who ended up in administrative positions. The one I knew best was Jim Tully, a seminary classmate of mine who was ordained a priest with the Xavierian Missionary Fathers. Jim was a popular, upbeat, talented, fun-loving guy who had a lot of friends. I see that the victim who has pursued Tully most vehemently, was 21 at the time Tully (age 40) allegedly molested him - Tully was eventually convicted of disorderly conduct. There were two other reported victims - I gather they were college students. It appears my friend did something wrong, but it also appears that the victims weren't children. The anti-abuse organizations are working hard against Jim Tully because he is still functioning as a priest, albeit apparently in administrative positions. But I haven't seen good information about what he did that was horrendous or that involved children.

Another of my classmates (I won't tell his name) is no longer functioning as a priest - but that's all it says about him at http://www.bishop-accountability.org/. I recently got back in contact with him through the Internet. All I know is that he's gay and HIV-positive, but no evidence he's a child molester. I think I knew about a dozen of the priests listed on the child molester database of bishop-accountability.org. I checked the stories of all of them as far as I could. Some, like Jim Tully, were borderline cases - there was evidence of sexual misconduct, but the complainant was legally an adult at the time of the incident. Others sounded pretty bad. I've known hundreds of priests in my life, and about a dozen showed up on the database of offenders. Of those dozen, only one struck me as being a potential problem - and he's one of those where there was no report other than the statement that he was no longer allowed to function.

So, it's a puzzlement. There are no easy answers. But I do think that my insights on diocesan chanceries are valid - some are places where coverups could very easily happen. And from what I hear, the chancery of the Archdiocese of Dublin, like the one in Boston, was like that.

-Joe-