....and when the perpetrators are no longer in authority and have gone to jail for their offenses; and the victims are well into adulthood, what then? How long do we keep pointing the finger of blame?

I will admit that this story is particularly interesting, since this former priest was unbelievably tenacious in his attempt to fight his removal from the priesthood, and in his efforts to find children to molest.

We can keep pointing back at these incidents of twenty and more years ago, and we can smugly condemn all the retired and dead and incarcerated people who committed the offenses - but that won't prevent future offenses, unless we come up with honest answers about why such offenses happen in our society, and what can be done to prevent them. This is a problem that afflicts all of humankind, not simply other people and churches we don't happen to belong to. We need to find solutions, and it's damn well time we quit wallowing in blame.

Do I think the problem has been solved? No.
Do I think the Catholic Church has instituted practices that will prevent future problems? No, and I think the Church and society are naive to think that any "solution" is fail-safe.

-Joe Offer-