No, Al, I don't think I misunderstand. I've studied the sociology of the Catholic Church with a very critical eye since my seminary days in the 1960s - and I've seen a lot of places where the Catholic Church is very, very sick. I have visited many churches and convents in Ireland, and I've seen both the good and the bad. I certainly acknowledge and deplore the bad, but I've also seen good in the Catholic Church in Ireland. But yes, there's an awful lot of bad, a repressive air that seems to pervade everything in some parishes.

In the Sacramento Diocese where I've lived for almost 40 years, there is an unusually large number of Irish-born priests and nuns - and I know dozens of priests and nuns here who were born in Ireland. I had a 30-year relationship with an Irish-born priest here who was a particular bastard who did his best to make Catholic life miserable for me - but lots of people loved the m----f----. But for the most part, the Irish-born priests and nuns I know are wonderful people. I've asked a number of them what it was like when they were growing up, and almost all of them had a very positive experience.

It's the same in the U.S. Many Catholics grew up in very severe surroundings, and their experience of the Catholic Church was severe. Most are no longer Catholics, but some grew up thinking that severity is an inevitable part of life. They do their best to make their parishes the unpleasant places they think churches should be. I met a sacristan in a church in County Clare who was like that - I'm sure she gave a sour attitude to the whole parish. And the Cathedral in Galway was like that. The two priests I met there were quite nice, but the entire congregation was somber and sour.

My sister was a very active and happy Catholic until she lived in Boston during the era of Cardinal Law. All of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts seemed to be set on denying the sexual abuse that had gone on in a number of parishes, and that air of denial caused a sickness in the entire archdiocese. That soured my sister on Catholicism, and rightly so. She left, and hasn't been back since.

My other sister lived in Connecticut, and her husband got sick and died when she was 40. A local priest made friends with my brother-in-law during that time, and visited him often. But there were times when the priest would be alone with my sister, and he made sexual advances toward her - while her husband was near death in the next room.

So, yeah, Al, I see the bad stuff - and I fight it wherever I find it.

-Joe-