""Give me the child at the age of 8, and I'll show you the man""
Probably as long as it takes you to realise that these are crimes committed by more than a "few bad apples" and they were assisted by your church Joe
Whatever the Jesuits meant or didn't mean, the church ruled by fear and influence wherever it had any authority - especially in Catholic Ireland, where that authority was written into the new State - the last remnant of that power is hopefully about to be removed with the repeal of the 8th amendment
I grew up aware of the fear generated by the church - my father lost his when he was excommunicated for fighting in Spain; my mother never did and still allowed herself to be bullied out of her last pennies by a priest making his weekly visits.
Fear of the clergy who were prepared to abuse their power by the use of spiritual blackmail was a major factor in these crimes and the hierarchy stood by and let it happen - they even facilitated the atrocities by moving the perpetrators to parishes where they were not known
Say that this didn't happen please Joe and remove the scales from my eyes.
You and Keith may shout "bigot" as loud as you want - if bigotry is a hatred of those who abuse their power to rape children - guilty as charged
Jim Carroll