Raggytash says: "If their colleagues then indulge in such abuse they should face the full weight of their fellow clergy and the full face of the law."

Agreed, but I think that only the offenders should be punished, and not the entire group. Crime tends to drive people to hysteria and bigotry. I continue to believe that most people, including most Catholics and most Catholic clergy, are pretty good folks and are not guilty of any criminal offense merely by their membership in a particular group.

There is a very vocal group in my town that is outraged by crime that happens in the community. They seem to be convinced that most crime is committed by homeless people, and so the town must rid itself of all homeless people.

I think it is important that we respond to crime in a very rational manner, being careful to stick the the facts. The original post by raggytash in this thread says, "The report I read on the BBC News suggested a figure of 49 members of the clergy." The actual report from the BBC (quoted in full above) says this:

At least 547 young members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir in Germany were subjected to physical and in some instances sexual abuse over a period of 60 years, a new report says.
The report accuses 49 members of the Catholic Church of carrying out the abuse between 1945 and the early 1990s.

It seems probable to me that most of those "49 members of the Catholic Church" were NOT clergy. I really do think that precise information is necessary when we are passing judgment in such matters. We humans tend to react to crime in irrational ways, making it far worse than it actually is.

Same with the "mass grave" issue. Early reports of the Tuam institution said that bodies of children were dumped into a refuse pit, but later reports showed that to be untrue. Residents of institutions are often buried without headstones when they die. There used to be a tuberculosis sanatorium next door to my home, and there's a graveyard there for patients who died. Most were buried in unmarked graves, usually identified only by a number. That's how they did it in those days.

Some clergy commit crimes. Some Jews commit crimes, Some Muslims commit crimes. Some homeless people commit crimes. But not all of them, and no individuals should feel obligated to apologize for crimes committed by other members of their group. That's a troublesome trend that has arisen lately, people demanding that Muslims speak out against acts of terrorism committed by other Muslims. If I didn't commit the crime, I should not be expected to atone for it.

-Joe Offer-