Jim, I will agree that any child abuse is horrendous, but I would like to know what "on a huge scale" means. Were thousands of priests involved in these crimes? Did the victims number in the tens of thousands? What percentage of priests have never been involved in any sexual misconduct with children, and what percentage of children were NOT victimized?

When you say that four Dublin archbishops systematically covered up the offenses, that is four out of how many? And what is it that they did that you consider a "coverup"? Did they fail to address the problem altogether, or did they actively support abuse, or did they perform less than totally admirably in some situations, or what?

The sexual abuse of children in churches (and in other institutions) has been a horrible scandal for a long, long time. Heck, songs have been written about the problem, long before the scandals of the last forty years. I would contend, however, that a relatively small percentage of Catholic priests (well under ten percent) committed crimes of child sexual abuse, and a relatively small percentage of Catholic children were victimized (I have no way to guess a number). I do not mean to downplay the problem, but I think it is important to be realistic and to recognize that the wrongdoers are a relatively small number. In the priesthood, as in every walk of life, most people are pretty good people.

Still, I have serious questions about the bishops. There definitely appears to have been widespread coverups, but it is unclear why this happened and what exactly happened. In my diocese of Sacramento, the policy was to give victims a settlement of $25,000 to $50,000, which was considered generous at the time (now the going rate is $1 million); and to offer counseling. Several priests were prosecuted, and some went to prison. In other situations where it was not clear that the conduct was criminal, the priest was reassigned to a job that did not involve contact with children; and some were removed from the priesthood. My diocese had a notoriously liberal bishop who wanted to make sure things were done right, so it may be that the situation was better in Sacramento than it was in other places. Many people received million-dollar settlements in Sacramento in the last few years, but most had already been paid many years ago - and most of the priests involved had already been removed from the priesthood, and some were prosecuted. In my diocese, there were no priests who were simply reassigned after a sexual abuse complaint. In every instance, the action taken was much more severe.

But still, the coverups happened - and in many dioceses. And there are still many unanswered questions. Were the bishops forced into silence by attorneys and insurance companies? We're often told not to apologize or admit guilt in a traffic accident, because otherwise we'll be "taken to the cleaners" by the other party. Did fear of unreasonable settlements lead to a Code of Silence among bishops? It may seem callous, but what would you do if you were faced with the prospect of paying a hundred million dollars for the misdeeds of ten people? The victims certainly deserved compensation - but the people who paid the compensation were not the criminals, and they had no knowledge of the crimes. And how much money is just compensation for a crime, especially when the people paying the compensation are not the criminals - an infinite amount?

Could it be that bishops believed too strongly that criminal priests could be cured by extensive psychiatric treatment? It you will recall, the concept of "rehabilitation" of criminals was in fashion in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the rebirth of conservatism in the 1980s, vengeance and retribution and punishment have become far more important in criminal justice, but the guiding lights of the 1970s believed that criminals could be reformed if exposed to the wisdom of psychiatry. Well, the American bishops believed that, and they spent tens of millions on programs meant to rehabilitate wayward priests. And when the priests were released with a "clean bill of health" after 6 months to two years of residential treatment, they were assigned to parishes with the belief that they would no longer be a risk.

We can go on forever with these blanket condemnations of priests and bishops and celibacy and all Catholics and churches in general - but if we use that approach, we'll never solve the problem. It's time to stop screaming and explore the problem with hard facts and brutal honesty. I've seen a whole lot of rhetoric and very little honesty in the reaction to this scandal. It's time to stop our obsession with blame. Many of those responsible for these crimes are dead or long retired. Our emphasis should be on healing the damage that was caused, exploring the reasons for child molestation, and developing methods of prevention and response that will effectively deal with this problem.

-Joe-