Mossback, I have no desire to do battle with you. Cool it. Now. What you're trying to pick a fight about, is immaterial.

Jim Carroll says: How longer are church people going to deny that this is now a major problem- are they not aware of the self-harm they are doing to their faith?

Give me one recent example of denial, Jim. Catholics, including church leaders, have acknowledged the reality and impact of this problem for a long, long, time.

But nobody denies this stuff, Jim.

As for the Illinois report, I'll wait and see. Seems to me that at this point, it would be unlikely that the attorney general would be able to uncover "about 500 of the allegations [that] had never before been disclosed to the public." (Chicago Tribune). http://bishop-accountability.org/ lists 265 Illinois priests as offenders, and I'm sure the number of offenses is many times 265.

I'll wait for more information on the Illinois report, which is described as "preliminary."

Whatever the case, it's a huge number of offenders and a far larger number of offenses. But I do think that Illinois will turn out like Pennsylvania - that most of the offenses and offenders have been known of by the public for many years.

-Joe-