Well, Frank - if closing a soup kitchen would solve the pedophile problem, I'd be all for it. It seems that the American way of solving problems is to throw money at the problem until the complainers get fabulously rich, and then hope the problem goes away. Yes, the Catholic Church should take swift action to remove suspected pedophile priests from any possible contact with children and refer the case for criminal investigation. If the priest is not exonerated, he should probably be defrocked if the victim was a child at the time the offense happened, and he should at least be dealt with severely if the victim was an adult. Yes, I think an attempt should be made to provide counseling to both the perpetrator and the victim, but I don't think a pedophile priest should be allowed to return to duty.

Certainly, it would be wonderful if potential pedophiles could be barred from seminary training - but how do you identify a potential pedophile?

I also think that the bishops owe the world an explanation about what appears to be negligent handling of this serious problem, and aso apparent attempts to cover up what has happened. However, I do think that the church has an obligation to protect the privacy of the victims, and of priests who have been falsely accused.

However, I don't think the problem can be solved by awarding huge financial settlements to the victims, forcing the church to close schools and social service programs. There has to be a balance. I'm afraid that the financial aspect has put bishops in a difficult position. We've had some situations in our diocese where money has been awarded to adult complainants who have no proof, and where there has been only one unproven complaint against a particular priest. Admittedly, this sort of thing is difficult to prove - but the church certainly can't advertise that it gives tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who'd like to file a complaint. The issue of financial settlements is very sticky, and it puts church leaders in a very difficult position.

I'm not trying to downplay or excuse the problem - it is a horrible situation, and something must be done about it. However, I don't think that in general, the church was callous about the problem - I think the main reason church leaders didn't take action earlier is that the extent of the problem wasn't known until just recently, and nobody really knew how to deal with it. Church leaders put a lot of faith in some very expensive rehabilitation programs, and the programs didn't cure the pedophile priests who were sent to them.

-Joe Offer-