When I was in seventh grade, a priest from our parish took five of us boys on a two-week trip from Wisconsin to Toronto. We had a great time, and nothing awful happened. I guess it wouldn't be possible for a priest to do that now, and I think that's too bad.

I studied for the priesthood at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee from 1962-70, ninth grade through college. I had a great time and got a great education, and nothing awful happened. There was a religious order that had a seminary not far from us - I found out recently that there had been sex problems there in the 1960's - priests on the faculty having sex with male students.

I wonder why it didn't happen to any great extent in the Milwaukee archdiocese. I think one reason is that since the 1940's or earlier, Milwaukee has had bishops who have been quite progressive. They haven't been afraid to allow questioning and discussion, and they have never assumed that the Church is perfect.

When I was a junior in college, we all went through a battery of psychological tests and an interview with a psychiatrist. A few months later, a few of my classmates quietly left school, and nobody ever knew exactly why. We speculated that they had been weeded out by the psychiatric examinations, and I suppose that's what happened. I guess it would have been improper for the seminary administration to give us an explanation - but the whole process was a bit spooky. Necessary, I suppose, but spooky.

Now I'm in the Sacramento diocese. I teach and do other work about 20 hours a week in varius church activities, and I think I've had access to "insider" information that doesn't get published in the newspapers. I have friends in the bishop's office, and one friend in the doctrine office in Rome (excuse my name-dropping). We've had a few problems with priests how made improper advances toward women, but no significant problems with pedophelia. The women problems were handled quickly, and serious action was taken against the priests involved. The diocese did not give full information about the problems to the press or to law enforcement, but there was no criminal conduct involved that I'm aware of.

For quite some time, I've been looking for reliable statistical information on the problem of pedophelia in the Catholic Church. Kendall says a thousand priests have been charged, but that's a thousand out of how many and over what period of time? I've read fairly credible sources who say that the percentage of priests involved in pedophelia is no higher than the percentage among men in general - but I'm not completely satisfied with the information I've found on that so far. I think it's quite possible that the percentage of perpetrators is no higher, but it seems likely that priest pedophiles may have a higher number of victims (with a lower number of incidents per victim). Pedophile priests certainly make more interesting headlines than pedophile uncles, so the news coverage may put the problem out of perspective. That's not an excuse - people should be able to expect exemplary conduct from priests. However, people should also be aware that there are always a few bad apples in every bushel.

What I don't understand is the cover-ups, although I have some ideas on the subject. Cardinal Law has admitted that he had known of the Geoghan problem for a number of years - but he hasn't given an explanation for why he failed to take action. Actually, is seems Law did take action, but what he did wasn't effective. I think it may be that Law and other bishops have been very naive, that they were taken in by the very qualities that enables the pedophile priests to charm little boys into having sex.

I think that for most of us, pedophilia is unthinkable, and an automatic first response might be to deny it happened. It just isn't part of reality for most people.

I've interviewed a number of convicted pedophiles who applied for government security clearances - they all were very charming, convincing, and contrite. It was hard for me to believe that they'd do a horrible thing like molesting children. I can imagine it would be even harder for priests and bishops to believe pedophilia charges made against a nice man they've known for decades.

Then there's the "deep pockets" problem. The Catholic Church is a multifaceted organization, with schools, healthcare facilities, soup kitchens, and any number of facilities that provide service to the community. If the Church has to pay millions of dollars in the impossible task of compensating for sexual abuse, all of the good works of the Church suffer. A single accusation of child molestation can cost more than the cost of a soup kitchen that feeds hundreds of people every day, and yet a ten-million-dollar settlement doesn't heal the wounds caused to a single victim of pedophilia. So, what's a bishop to do? Should he close down the schools and soup kitchens and give full information about every case to the newspapers and pay whatever is demanded? It's not an easy question to answer.

I think it's obvious that the Catholic Church has finally realized that it has a problem, and it is struggling to find answers. Nowadays, it has become rare for a pedophile priest to escape church and criminal punishment. I think that's progress, isn't it?

For those who observe from the sidelines, it may seem that there is an easy solution to the problem of pedophile priests, but is there? If you were Cardinal Law, what would you do? It's easy to find fault with him and other Catholic bishops, but the problem is a lot more complex than it first seems. I'm sure that the talk show hosts and callers have all sorts of easy answers, but I'm not sure I'd want to see them dealing with the problem.

There's another misunderstanding that I see in this thread and others - outsiders (and some Catholics) seem to see the Church as a monolithic, obedient body that responds immediately to commands from Rome. Time and time again, I see comments about how the Catholic Church "controls" its members. Yes, as in every organization, some leaders in the Catholic Church are heavy-handed in their use of authority - but I don't see how that constitutes "control." I've been a Catholic for 53 years, and I've never seen or experienced the control that some say that Catholic Church has over its members.

-Joe Offer-