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whereas any Catholic local church which attempted to endorse homosexuality would have its clergy disciplined, either by removal, excommunication or whatever.

"Endorse?" Slippery word, that. The Catholic priesthood has been widely perceived, rightly or wrongly and for a very long time, as a haven for homosexuals. That has borne fruit in molestations of boys within the church. To my knowledge, and I welcome your correcting me if I'm wrong, these priests, homosexuals preying on teenagers and therefore not pedophiles, were quietly shipped off to another parish.

So, you see, there are advantages to a decentralized approach as well. Are there Protestant churches that would have allowed such a thing to continue, quietly relocated the offenders, and reached monetary settlements with the victims? I don't doubt that there are. But, by far and away, such offenders would be called out, publicly shamed and immediately ejected from just about any Protestant denomination, aside from the liberal, adrift and sadly Godless few.

The Catholic priesthood has been widely perceived, rightly or wrongly and for a very long time, as a haven for homosexuals. That has borne fruit in molestations of boys within the church.

"Haven" is far too strong a word. The decision was made some time back to allow those with homosexual tendencies to be priests, so long as they did not act on them. That was a big mistake in my opinion, and hopefully that is being corrected. However, that is a far cry from being a haven for homosexuals.

Also, the number of cases of pedophile or otherwise predatory priests is not actually that large, given the number of Catholics in the world, and the sheer number of priests. I would not be surprised if similar cases in the Protestant denominations were in equal ratios. The news media, which has its own agenda as we all know, publicized the hell out of every case they could find in the Catholic Church, giving the impression that there was some kind of epidemic. I don't excuse the lack of appropriate response of the Church in some of those cases, however. All should have been jailed, defrocked, or both.