Agreed, Bonnie. The dismal Mass I attended in Galway was a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.
But it sure made me think the Catholic Church in Ireland is very sick.

The Sisters of Mercy convents we visited in Ireland were wonderful, though. It seems they have dealt with their ills and moved to the right track.

I typed up a long response to your "pick and choose" remark, but it got lost. Let me remind you that according to traditional Catholic teaching, the conscience has primacy. Neoconservative Catholics take a far more legalistic view of their faith, but that's nonsense to me. Take what I said about "benign neglect" and apply it to other organizations you know. Isn't it the truth? Why shouldn't it also be true for churches?

Obedience to authority has no part in my religious faith. To me, authority in the church is meant to serve the people. Vatican II agrees with me.

Jim, nobody minimizes the crimes of child molestation in the Catholic Church any more - not even in Ireland or Rome. It's taken very seriously. Still, large portions of the church were not directly affected by the molestation, which was committed by some five percent of priests. To attempt to gain some sort of understanding of proportion, is not to minimalize the problem. It's just an attempt to get a realistic view. Even if the number were ten percent, that still leaves a huge percentage of priests who were not criminals.

And yes, one might expect a nun who worked in a Magdelene Laundry to rationalize what happened there. That's human nature. But the rest of us know what went on, and abhor it.

-Joe-