Oh, Joe, don't get me wrong. I had a great time in Catholic school,
particularly my final two years in high school. And some of my teachers
I still count as friends, lo these many years later.

However, that doesn't mean that, in retrospect, I don't feel that I
was being manipulated by the Catholic School 'system' and by some
of the individuals in it. Nor that I don't believe that there was
an incredible amount of intellectual dishonesty, especially around
'pelvic issues,' abortion in particular.

And I violently reject any attempt to minimize the impact (or scope)
of the sex abuse crisis in the Church of Rome with the tired old 'it
happens everywhere' argument. You can point to the John Jay study all
you want and declare that it was 'only' four percent; those of us
in advocacy know better. Both in terms of numbers of victims of that
alleged 'four percent' and in the harsh reality that, in my
experience of knowing personally and moving amongst the clergy, that
four percent number is just way too low. Four percent who got caught
by the public (as opposed to their fellows) perhaps.