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Most Catholics I've talked to will at best condemn the abuse while at the same time make excuses for the heirarchy and at worst scream to the top of their lungs that the allegations are all a fraud(this one man I know says that it's a masonic conspiracy to destroy the church, he also says that the Spanish Inquisition was a great thing and that Mussolini was the defender of Christian Civilization. He even has a portrait of Mussolini in his den next to his picture of the Virgin Mary.)

Most Catholics I've talked to will at best condemn the abuse while at the same time make excuses for the hierarchy and at worst scream to the top of their lungs that the allegations are all a fraud

I'm saddened by the abuse, but the blame lies with the abuser, not with the Church. The hierarchy handle the matter in the way they feel appropriate -- sometimes in a manner I do not agree with. I know if my Priest got hold of one of these &%$# imposters, there wouldn't be much left to prosecute.

The progressives who got themselves all sideways on this ("Celibacy is the problem! We need women priests!") will never admit that they caused, and continue to support, the problem. They view my Priest as old-fashioned and out of touch. But the Church I attend has doubled its congregation in the time I've gone there -- no small feat for a small Church in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I'm not the only one driving 60 miles a week to attend Mass (of course, this does make volunteering for the 6:00 AM breakfasts an act worthy of Lent).

The Catholics who attend my Church would no more tolerate a child molester than they would tolerate a woman priest. We have no written rules regarding such things -- nowhere does it say, "You can't bugger kids and women can't serve Mass." We just know it's not done. Individuals inclined toward those beliefs are very uncomfortable there and don't last more than a month.

He even has a portrait of Mussolini in his den next to his picture of the Virgin Mary.

You sure that's Mussolini and not Franco? Inquisition lovers tend to dislike the former and adore the latter, as far as 1930s dictators go.