[CatoRenasci]

This is very good. He's right about needing "new men." He's wrong to think the existing hierarchcy can be converted short of a miracle on the order of Saul becoming Paul on the Road to Damascus.

Every bishop, archbishop or cardinal who has covered up credible allegations of sex abuse by priests of minors of any age, and every bishop, archbishop or cardinal accused credibly of homosexual relations with anyone, adult or minor, should resign and retreat to a Trappist monastary for the rest of his life, do penance and pray for God's Mercy.

[CJ Wolf]

Hey, at least now we know the real reason why the Catholic priests don't like condoms. It's the same old problem most guys have, it just doesn't feel as good.

< flamesuit on! >

[yendu bwam]

I told him that I remain Catholic not because I had any faith in the bishops' handling of the sex-abuse matters, but because I believe that Catholicism is true.

This is also why I remain Catholic. I have lost faith in the hierarchy of the Church to protect children, to be honest with the laity, to teach actual Catholic morality (esp. sexual morality), to rid the priesthood of its thousands of active homosexuals, and so on. Though I respect the Pope, I am losing faith in him too. A good and strong Pope would not let this happen, and would act vigorously to clean up the moral morass into which the Church has fallen.

[yendu bwam]

A leading Catholic psychiatrist told me it's absurd to think that someone who molests a minor only does it once.

Without a one strike and you're out rule, kids will be molested who didn't have to be. Further, the Church is doing absolutely NOTHING to PREVENT these abuses. Putting active homosexual priests in close company with teenage boys is like putting an alcoholic in charge of a liquor store. Only in the former case, many lives are ruined.

[MrMatt]

I agree with this author. Not being Catholic, one thing continues to perplex me with most of what is being written about this topic. That is that most articles and comments never get around to the fact that the behavior is not only counter to church teachings--but it is also ILLEGAL! While the Catholic Church is a fine institution that does a tremendous amount of good, there is an overriding impression from both the church hierarchy and the membership that this is something that can and should be dealt with from within the church. These bishops have aided and supported felons in their avoidance of prosecution and perhaps have stood by while additional felonies have been committed.

[ghost of nixon]

It also proposes that priests who, in the past, have been diagnosed with pedophilia, or who have committed more than one act of sexual abuse of a minor, should be laicized.

Laicized? I don't what that is, but it sounds like what the priests were doing to the young boys. I guess "an eye for an eye" is in effect here.

[Richard Kimball]

What is also significant about this is that the Catholic Church has been totally neutralized as a force for representing any kind of moral standards for the country. This is not to say that there are no moral Catholics or Catholic priests. What is does mean is that any priest who speaks out against any type of sexual sin can immediately be neutralized by the opposition with a snide remark or joke.

It's very clear that pedophilia is the taboo currently in the sights of the nihilists. Who can speak out against it now? When the next book comes out claiming that "adult-child sexual relations can be positive", the Catholic Church will either remain silent or be ridiculed out of the debate. Since all conservative Protestants have already been effectively marginalized by the mass media, the final obstacle is out of the way for the final descent.

[maryz]

Excellent, excellent article. Of course, Dreher's been good on this from the beginning. Polls have shown that most American Catholics place primary blame for this scandal not on the abusive priests, but on the bishops who allowed them to prey on minors and families for years.

When we were kids, my mother would often say, in forbidding or correcting, "Because I'm your mother, and when I die, I am going to have to answer to God for your sins as well as my own!" My mother had only a high school education -- and went to public school. How did she realize what the bishops apparently don't -- that those with teaching authority (whether by nature or by being appointed) -- are responsible for the spiritual welfare of those under their guidance?

(Do you suppose any of these bishops actually believe in hell? One of the Boston miscreants -- I forget which, just too many to keep straight -- actually wept to the boy he had just done and begged him not to tell because the molester could "be fired or excommunicated.")

[Dajjal]

Sounds like Dreher thought that a solution would actually come from the Dallas meeting.

Pray to St. Peter Damian for reform.