that is exactly the problem..that they ..we.. have known about it, covered it up, protected the sick and guilty and bought off the victims....and insured there would be more victims by transferring the sick priests to other parishes....all at the same time that the church was still (this goes back a long ways) absolutely horrified by consensual sex between a male and female (in most cases) adult...there is no sense of proportion here...no sense of the harm that has been done..even when the victims have become alchoholics, committed suicide etc...and there is something that not just condones this, but produces it.

Last night, after taking up a second collection for an agency I am involved with that works with sexual assault victims (girls in this case), the priest said sit down...we sat...he said I need to say something about the scandal. I thought, at last. He said.. Don't be too quick to judge. The church has always had scandals. That was about the jist of it. Not one word about the victims.... the people I was with almost got up and walked out..... mg