Jim Who Knows All Things says, solemnly: The first step to healing is to recognise the illness - the church has refused to do so, so it has painted itself out of the picture

Jim, that is downright ludicrous. Why do you think the Archdiocese of Milwaukee hired psychiatrists to screen us seminarians in the 1960s? Why do you think the bishops of the United States spent millions on treatment centers for child molester priests in the 1970s. Why do you think that the National Catholic Reporter and other Catholic publications like the Jesuits' America have published a steady stream of articles exposing the sex abuse scandal since 1983? They recognize the illness, no doubt about it.

I don't know the details of how things happened in the Catholic Church in Ireland and in the UK, but I imagine the story came out in much the same way, and much earlier than you might contend.

The problem, Jim, is that you fail to understand the complexity of organizations, including the Catholic Church. All organizations of people are the product of myriad conflicting forces There is no such thing as a monolithic organization, where all the members think the same and act the same. Even rigid dictatorships are far more diverse than you might think. And most organizations have a wide spectrum of power centers - very few leaders are able to direct everything from the top. Most actions and decisions happen locally, not at headquarters.

Everything you say about the Catholic Church is true - and at the same time, everything you say about the Catholic Church is false. Everything that happens in the Catholic Church is the result of one faction prevailing over another faction, for at least a brief moment and at a particular location. And in a worldwide organization like the Catholic Church, one thing can happen in one location, while the exact opposite thing can be happening unnoticed on the other side of the earth - or right next door, as happened with the School for the Deaf next door to my seminary.

Jim, I think you need to take a course in organizational dynamics. You, sir, just don't get it. Talking to you is like talking to a wall, because you cannot accept the idea of diversity.