This article is what I've been looking for, for a long, long time:

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/cardinal-laws-complex-role-contemporary-history-clergy-sexual-abuse

It was written by a priest who worked in the Vatican Embassy in the U.S. in the 1980s. Very few "insiders" have said anything about what led to the awful coverup mess that the Catholic Church got itself into. It's the same thing that happens so often everywhere - politics took precedence over compassion.

The child sex scandal was well-known by the U.S. bishops in 1985 - and they chose to table all attempts to deal with the problem. They finally took action in 2002, after the expose from the Boston Globe. But they had a very good chance to deal with the problem in 1985, and they tabled it.

I knew about this stuff in 1985 or earlier. The National Catholic Reporter has been publishing articles about this sex scandal since 1983, and I'm a regular reader. There's a bunch of you asshole bigots here who try to accuse me of denying the wrongdoing or defending my church, but the truth is that I have spoken out against this shit every chance I've had since 1985...and I've spoken out where it counts, not just in Internet folk music forums amongst anti-religious bigots. I tend to think that this matter must be dealt with rationally and with solid evidence and not hysteria, but this is the one issue in the Catholic Church that has made me angrier than any other.

There are some "good guys" among the U.S. bishops, but their voices were lost amidst the powerful people who silenced this problem from 1985 until they finally took action in 2002. And whatever the case, nobody among the U.S. bishops spoke loud enough to get anything done until the Boston Globe published their story in 2002. Then everybody jumped on the bandwagon.

I don't know any victims of sexual abuse by priests. I have sympathy for them, but there is an element of reality lacking in my sympathy because I lack personal knowledge. Some of you asshole bigots will condemn me for that, but that's the truth. If you can't admit the same about yourselves, then you truly are assholes.

But I do know a lot of priests because I was in the seminary for 8 years, and the vast majority of those priests have never had any thought of molesting a child. Yet, all of them are suspect, and that constant suspicion since 2002 has been an awful burden for these innocent men to bear. You asshole bigots may think that these good men deserve to be under suspicion because they are priests and that's the price of being priests, but that's bullshit. How would YOU like to live your life under constant suspicion of being a child molester, simply because you work in a particular occupation?

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As for the Pope and what he said about Bishop Juan Barros who's been targeted by protesters in Chile, note that the Pope just asks for evidence that Barros committed a cover-up of the crimes of Fr. Karadima. The courts said that allegations against Karadima were credible, but that the statute of limitations had expired. The Pope did not deny the crimes committed by Karadima. The court said nothing about Barros, and the evidence against Barros is very sketchy. So, for now, I agree with the Pope. Until there's evidence, there's no reason to take action against Bishop Barros.

-Joe-