Martin says:

I'm not sure why you seem surprised that individual generosity and caring behaviour could coexist with abuse in the context of religious organisations. Of course it did - I could tell you tales of both! Nonethless, the prevailing culture in 20C. working class Dublin was of clerical domination of the lives of those people - overwhelmingly so until the mid '70's. I'm making no commment on the middle class or rural situations simply to emphasise that I speak from direct experience.

Martin-
That's exactly my point - but I see no recognition of that coexistence in most of the posts in this thread. I just can't buy the blanket demonization that has come from so many posts here. I don't see anybody or any institution as all good or all bad - they are what they are. All my life, I've been so highly critical of the Catholic Church as to be told by some that I'm not really Catholic. And here, I'm seen as a participant in the coverup because I'm seeking balance and fairness in the assessment of the situation. I'm sure that if I lived in Ireland, I would be one of the more vocal critics within the Catholic Church - but I would be within the Catholic Church, because I don't like the idea of abandoning my church to the likes of Archbishop McQuaid.

You mentioned the rural situation, and there may be a key there. I have a feeling my friend Fr. Martin had a far different experience growing up a farmer's son in County Clare, than Frank McCourt had growing up in Limerick. My pastor, Fr. Mike, grew up in Cork with an alcoholic father who was a building contractor. Still, Mike had a pretty good existence growing up, though they didn't have much money. Most of the other Irish-born priests and nuns I know in Sacramento, came from rural areas and from towns I've never heard of, not from the bigger cities.


-Joe-