People keep saying that the molesting priests should have been controlled so molestation wouldn't happen. Hmmmm. I wonder if any of us would want to live in a society that is so strictly controlled, that crime is impossible.

I didn't like Pope John Paul II. I thought he undid a lot of good that was accomplished by Vatican II. I had a great deal of respect for the bishop my diocese had in the 1980s, a gentle, wise man of integrity. He was replaced by a John Paul II appointee who joined in the work of undoing Vatican II. Luckily, since the Catholic Church largely has local autonomy, I could find many parishes that were largely unaffected by the oppressive reign of John Paul II.

Another thing about John Paul II is that he largely ignored the sexual abuse crisis. I suppose part of the reason for that was that he was in ill health the last ten years of his life. For the most part, he ignored the problem because he didn't believe such a thing could happen in his church, which he saw as perfect.
I'm not totally thrilled by Benedict XVI, but at least he is open to discussion - and he has done something about the child abuse/molestation crisis. But still, his control over my life, and over bishops and priests, is limited - and I am very glad of that.

I don't deny the child abuse and molestation that took place in the Catholic Church. I am appalled by it. Most likely, it is still taking place. I do not believe that any amount of effort can completely stamp out a crime of this nature.

There were Catholic dioceses and institutions and religious orders where child abuse and molestation was allowed to run rampant - in a few places, partly due to the fact that the bishop himself was a child molester. In the diocese next to mine, Santa Rosa, California, the bishop was having a sex affair with a priest. In that diocese, the sexual abuse problem was not handled at all, and there was a horrible mess when it was finally discovered what was going on. Still, most parishes in that diocese were reasonably healthy.

I watch the events very closely in two dioceses, my own Sacramento diocese and the Milwaukee archdiocese where I attended the seminary. I know a good number of the priests in these two dioceses. In my diocese and in Milwaukee, most cases of child molestation were handled years and years ago. A few slipped through the cracks for various reasons. You will find that in most free societies, a good amount of crime goes unpunished. I don't know statistics, but I would guess that in the United States, far more than fifty percent of crimes committed, go unpunished. Some are unpunished due to incompetent law enforcement, but most are unpunished because there was not enough evidence to make a case. That's the way it is in a free society. I accept this - does this mean I favor crime?

Yes, there were a lot of child molestation incidents in my church that went unpunished - but there were a large number that ended up in a priest being removed and prosecuted. In my diocese and in Milwaukee, almost every reported child molester was removed from the priesthood. Some fled the country to avoid prosecution.

But most priests and most bishops did not commit these crimes.

What I ask for at Mudcat is balance, for a realistic view of the nature of organizations and the nature of crime. And for the most part, I don't see that happenening. Still, I think Bill D has a very balanced and realistic perspective. I disagree with him on one item - his suggestion that priests should not do counseling. I think they should be properly trained to do counseling, and they are in many seminaries.

-Joe Offer-