I'll admit you told the story quite fairly, Jim. I just wondered why you failed to report the dates in your narrative, as you failed to report the dates of the molestations at the school for the deaf in Milwaukee.

The context of time, is a very important one. Your failure to include the fact that these incidents took place in the 1970s, definitely and unfairly tips the scales in your favor.

On the other hand, what's ironic about this is that you and I basically agree. I think the Catholic Church has a long and sordid history of being in bed with tyrants. I acknowledge and detest the Catholic Church's failure to deal with the child molestation scandal at the time it was happening (it's dealing with it now, but now is far too late). I think that the Catholic Church should bless homosexual marriages and ordain women and married people. And I think the birth control ban is silly. And while I see abortion as objectively wrong, I adhere to the longtime Catholic position that sometimes people must choose between two wrongs, and then they must follow what their conscience dictates. I don't defend the Catholic Church's position on any of these matters. But still, it's my church, and I stick around to do what I can to move the church toward change. And I see these issues as important but ancillary - not central to the essence of the Catholic Church.



-Joe-