Many of these allegations were false, dug up by ambulance chasing attorneys.
So I must ask of the people who keep bashing the Catholic Church on this matter:
Where you or a member of your family molested by a priest, by a parent, by a teacher, by anyone?
No, and I don't know.
Which is totally irrelevant. I can still recognize that sexual abuse by priests, who are supposed to be Christ's representatives on earth, and the covering up of said abuse by higher up Catholic clergy, is a special kind of evil considering that the Catholic church speaks out so much against it in the world and should be an example of proper moral behavior.
Is not the Catholic church supposed to be a light to the world and an example of Christ-likeness to the unsaved?
Do they not claim the higher moral ground? Shouldn't they?
Again, we're not just talking about allegations. There are more than enough verified cases of abuse for the Catholic church to deal with without worrying about groundless accusations, and they haven't been doing a stellar job with the legitimate ones anyway.
It would be kind of refreshing to see more than one or two Catholics acknowledge that what the priests did was wrong and the way the Catholic church handled it was wrong.
Everyone else can see that it’s wrong. Why not Catholics?
No, instead they cry *hate* and *bigotry*.
For what? Forcing them to face the music by insisting on accountability?