Greg names Dale Fushek, founder of the popular Life Teen youth ministry program; along with popular teacher and a best-selling religious author John Powell, SJ. I'd add Covenant House founder Fr. Bruce Ritter to the list. These were very popular, nationally-known priests who worked with youth and molested them. These men were loved and idolized - and they betrayed the young people who loved them.

As I said above, the "weirdness count" among priests is maybe 20-30% - these are the priests I wouldn't trust my children with. Trouble is, the ones who are the most prolific child molesters, usually don't seem weird at all. They are most often very charmong and convincing, and they seem to have the highest of morals The most successful child molesters aren't the type who condemn people for immorality - it's the weird ones who do that, and that makes them suspect.

I have to say that there isn't a high "weirdness count" among bishops - for some reason, a good number of bishops (maybe 20-30%) are just bastards. There are plenty of bishops who are darn good people, but a 20-30% bastard count is awfully high - and it affects a whole lot of Catholics if their bishop is a bastard. As far as I can tell, it is the bastard bishops who are most likely to cover up stuff like child molestation - power is the primary consideration of a bastard bishop, and a child molestation scandal is a serious threat to a bishop's power.

Now, there are situations in every diocese that the bishop should have handled better, but most of those were honest mistakes or things that looked far worse than they actually were. I would guess there were ten to twenty out of some 200 dioceses in the United States where there were systematic coverups of child molestation. Please remember, also, that each diocese is largely autonomous. The Pope has very limited control over what goes on in dioceses other than his own, which is Rome.

The news coverage has been such that it seems like all priests were molesters, and all dioceses had coverups. The problem was (and is) very serious, but it is not universal.

It does seem to have been far more widespread in Ireland, due to a long chain of dictatorial archbishops in Dublin. The first message in the thread questions actions in 1975 by Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, who is now Primate (chief bishop) of all Ireland. I don't think there's enough information to make a decision about Brady's actions in 1975. It may be one of those "looks worse than it was" situations, or it could be an intentional coverup. I'll wait and see.

Somebody above said there's no need to understand the reasons behind child molestation. I can't agree with that. If you don't understand a criminal activity thoroughly, you'll never be able to figure out how to control that sort of crime. Shooting "bad guys" with guns just isn't very effective.

But still I wonder what the Catholic Church is supposed to do with all of this. There's no doubt that the crime was significant and widespread, and Catholics are reeling from the effects of this scandal. But is wallowing in guilt the only thing society will allow us to do now? Should we all walk around with "kick me when I'm down" signs pinned to our backs? Nobody in this or any other Mudcat thread, has tried to deny the molestation incidents or the coverups. People in this thread have been jumping all over all Catholics, holding sacred traditions up to ridicule, and generally battering those few of us who dare to try to bring some balance to the discussion.

Crime happens all around us. Some people direct their entire focus on the terrible things in our society, and they live their lives in fear and mistrust. They accuse others of being "soft on crime," implying that those who don't dwell on crime must be in favor of it. NOBODY favors crime. NO CATHOLIC favors the crimes of molestation and abuse and coverups that took place in the Catholic Church.

-Joe-