No disagreement there, Raggytash.
You say: the church you follow has for decades allowed atrocious abuse to take place by the very people who are supposed to be LEADERS of that faith and then sought to protect those same people from the punishments they should be subject too, and that they so richly deserve.

I have lived most of my life as a Catholic in two dioceses: Sacramento (California) and Milwaukee (Wisconsin). Both of these dioceses had priests who were child molesters, and I have known a number of priests in both dioceses who committed these crimes. Both of these dioceses took immediate action against the offenders as soon as the crimes were discovered. Sacramento offered immediate settlements and counseling to all who filed complaints. I don't know what Milwaukee did - the scandal came to light long after I left the seminary and moved away from Milwaukee in 1970. But I do know that Miulwaukee paid a lot of money in settlements and had to file bankruptcy. I'm sure that some cases were not handled well in both dioceses, but it appears to me that for the most part, both dioceses tried hard to "do the right thing."

I also know that there were many dioceses that did NOT handle these crimes well. It would be interesting to see a study of how each diocese in my country responded. I'm afraid that the U.S. map would be covered with far too many dioceses that consistently mishandled cases - and a good number where the coverups were clearly criminal, some notoriously so. I did not experience these coverups in Milwaukee and Sacramento. Indeed, Milwaukee was already making efforts in the 1960s to screen out seminarians who might become sex offenders - I went through that screening myself, and I can tell you that it was rigorous.

My sister was a very active Catholic, and she lived in the Boston area during the reign of the notorious Cardinal Law. She said that Law's attempts to deny and cover up sex crimes in the Boston Archdiocese were like a sickness that pervaded all Catholic activities in the entire area. My sister left the Catholic Church, and will have nothing to do with any sort of religious practice. I can't talk with her about religious matters any more - she just gets angry. When I visited her in Egypt five years ago, I was interested in learning about Islam and Coptic Christianity and the history of Judaism in Alexandria, but she got angry every time I brought up a question. My other siblings stopped practicing religion when they became adults, but my sister lasted until she was in her 40s. Only my parents and I remained Catholic - and I think I can say that my parents and I enjoyed being Catholic and did not experience the negative side of Catholicism that does indeed exist in many places.

I don't post what I post here in an attempt to defend the Catholic Church - there is no defense for the terrible things that were done in the name of my church. I have not and I will not defend these terrible crimes. But I do believe that there is a need for fair and open discussion of this scandal and its repercussions. And that's what I'm trying to do - just discuss the matter and share my thoughts and experiences, because that's all that I have the power to do.

Still, I do not think that larger and larger settlements are going to heal the wrong done. Healing is not going to occur by throwing money at the wound. I agree that there is a need for financial settlements, but financial settlements are not enough.

I do not believe that the process can stop with the payment of settlements. That's just not enough. I think that the next step is free and opoen and honest discussion by the victims and by those who committed these horrible crimes against them. We all need to hear why these things happened, what led up to them, what actually happened, and what has happened to both victims and offenders since the offenses. There have beginnings of these discussions in many places, but nothing really significant has happened so far.

Now I'm going to say something that will put our sharks into a frenzy, but I think it needs to be said. I do not think that honest discussion and healing can begin until the criminal prosecutions and reparations have been completed. How can a priest or bishop talk freely and honestly, if he has to fear being sent to prison or being required to pay millions of dollars more? The truth of this matter is not pretty; and if offenders tell the truth, it will bring about another frenzy of anger and demands for more prosecutions and reparations. And I think it's safe to say that most of the people who are in a frenzy, are NOT people who were victims of sex crimes.

But we need to know why this terrible thing happened, and we need to know how to prevent it from happening again - in churches, or in other parts of society. If we can allow the truth to be spoken, we may learn how to stop or control this problem of child molestation that is so widespread in our world.

As I've said before, the independent newspaper National Catholic Reporter has been publishing bluntly honest articles on the Catholic sex abuse scandal since 1983. Today I was reading an NCR article titled 'Uncommon conversation' on sex abuse falls silent. It tells the story of one attempt made to achieve the honest dialogue I seek between victims and offenders - and the article reports that this effort failed. I hope that people will continue to attempt such discussions - they are the next step beyond reparations, and it is a necessary step.

But such discussions may happen only if there are statutes of limitations that put an end to the prosecutions and reparations after a reasonable length of time.

Please remember that I seek only honest discussion. I do not seek to defend the people who committed these crimes or to denigrate the victims. Why would I want to do that?

-Joe-