"How much penance do we have to do for the sins of a few of our priests?"

Hmmm... just in case it was missed I requote from an earlier post...

QUOTE
In 2002, according to devout Catholic columnist Ross Douthat, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spoke the following words to an audience in Spain:

I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign ... to discredit the church.

On April 10, the New York Times—the apparent center of this "planned campaign"—reprinted a copy of a letter personally signed by Ratzinger in 1985. The letter urged lenience in the case of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle, who had tied up and sexually tormented two small boys on church property in California. Kiesle's superiors had written to Ratzinger's office in Rome, beseeching him to remove the criminal from the priesthood. The man who is now his holiness the pope was full of urgent moral advice in response. "The good of the Universal Church," he wrote, should be uppermost in the mind. It should be understood that "particularly regarding the young age" of Father Kiesle, there might be great "detriment" caused "within the community of Christ's faithful" if he were to be removed.
UNQUOTE

??!! Sigh... "Take the bastard out and shoot him" some redneck Aussies might say...

As long as he remains in charge, his sincerity seems suspect (and probably doesn't help ordinary believers look good either), but of course, ordinary believers can't expel The Pope, no matter what he does...

I do feel sorry for honest sincere believing Roman Catholics, even though I was raised a Lutheran. :-)