21 Comments

• KatieMurphy | Mar 12, 2012, 01:32 AM EDT

  let the church rant and rave. its filled with lonely, unfullfilled men who couldnt afford prostitutes so their took out their natural law desires on the handiest and easiest to terrorize into submission and quiet - the alter boys.................And why were there much fewer 21% of the victims of the umarried preists girls???? .... because until recently the church didnt have alter girls.

• stephen1553 | Dec 20, 2011, 06:35 PM EST

  Hee's shsocked - well, when you have someone who thinks they are GOD ( the real issue in the catholic hierarchy), they simply cannot immagine that anything they do is wrong. That is the basic problem, we all need to dwell on it I've read that a cardinals set of clothes cost about $30,000. Thats just another part of the problem, they remind me of the Iranian Peacock throne monster the Shah of Iran, whose whole jacket was almost fully covered with medals. Virtually all of which should have been stuffed up his backside. Jesus went around in rags. So should the hierarchy, including the pope. Break down the military type hierarchy. Isnt it time that the religious emperors be seen as wearing no clothes ?

• veryluckyone | Nov 15, 2011, 01:58 PM EST

  HE's shocked. What did he expect?

• turzovka | Nov 15, 2011, 10:59 AM EST

  was my comment (an hour ago) too lengthy or unacceptable? thanks.

• gobdawpaddy | Nov 15, 2011, 07:16 AM EST

  I was an altar boy for many years as a young boy. I was involved with the scouts (CBSI) which involved regular contact with local priests. I was also in Catholic school for my entire pre-college schooling. During all these years and contact with priests, I never so much as heard a rumour of misconduct by any of them. I realize there are a lot of bad apples out there, who did some very sick things, but there are also some very decent, dedicated men who are priests and I feel sorry for those people.

• helmet365 | Nov 14, 2011, 05:27 PM EST

  celicfour, If it were not for the Church hundreds of thousands of innocent africans would not have died agonising deaths from aids because of the Church's obsession with sin (a man made control thing) and preventing contraception use. Like most Catholic doctrine this will change for fear of mass walkouts which are happening now. Spare a thought for the innocents because the Catholic church won't.

• Collette2 | Nov 14, 2011, 04:46 AM EST

  celicfour, I don't know what part of the country you hail from but you certainly underestimate and offend the common decency of the majority of society, catholic or not.

• cantwaittogo | Nov 13, 2011, 11:14 PM EST

  Posted by celticfour on Nov 13, 2011, 10:53 AM EST "Even if [I'd never concede that this is true] one in five were guilty.What about the other 80%? Half of them are doing good work. The other half are living saints and the press is torturing them." If you consider alcoholism to be "doing good work" , then yes, about 40% of them are "doing good work". "The other half are living saints"-I had no idea that maintaining celibacy (as they vowed to do when they voluntarily joined up)and sobriety, qualifies one for sainthood- becasue I've seen very few of them do much more than that.

• Woodman | Nov 13, 2011, 07:42 PM EST

  Every time the media reports a Jihad warrior does suicide bombing, we are told Islam is a religion of peace and most practitioners don't support that. But based on the reporting I guess all the Irish are guilty of homosexual pedophilia or covering it up.

• CaptainCon | Nov 13, 2011, 02:57 PM EST

  Catholic Church's own fault. If it had done the right thing instead of trying to shrug off the whole scandal it would have cleaned its house by now. The church is ethically strangling itself. Good riddance.

• Springfield9 | Nov 13, 2011, 02:44 PM EST

  Give 1000 inspired homilies and no one remembers .... but bugger one boy and the Earth moves.

• canadianirish | Nov 13, 2011, 02:41 PM EST

  One in every five? More like one in two.

• IAPRINCESS | Nov 13, 2011, 01:59 PM EST

  Amazing how one bad apple can spread such havoc. But, oh, it was more than one!!!

• cillowen | Nov 13, 2011, 01:09 PM EST

  The American Sat/Sun game rituals have much to deal with on their own without sneering at the RCs. The US sexual cover-ups are beyond the pale. Who's gonna confront such evil without being attacked by the other half - those who will riot in denial of facts. Ireland's RC Saint Patrick should be removed, the next to go. He being Ireland's only real claim to fame with what his teachings and what his monesteries unleashed. Tune in to anything of Ireland and you'll see the depths reached across the board - foul mouthed dingy loones - try RTE for starters.

• hybernia | Nov 13, 2011, 12:54 PM EST

  Those people holding out the plates for you money are sex perverts and con-artists who are clearly unafraid that the god they claim will smite you for an impure thought is not going to send them to the dark places for sexually molesting little kiddies. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and all powerful (it says so right on the label), yet cannot see into the hearts of the guys lining up for jobs? And how can you reconcile allowing a sex pervert to teach your children morality? I know they call it blind faith, but c'mon, open your eyes! Use that brain you claim your god gave you!

• Parents | Nov 13, 2011, 12:45 PM EST

  It is the cover-up that is sickening as well as the assaults. I heard on CNN the other day that sexual abuse is like getting away with murder because you change that child's whole life and it lasts their lifetime and yet they hid it and took steps to keep it hidden. In many cases the priets were just sent somewhere else and they knew it would happen there, so that is quite unforgivable. We don't really know how many and either do they, many times it just went unreported for good reasons. Nothing was done about it, it was denied. Horror.

• cillowen | Nov 13, 2011, 12:40 PM EST

  The American Sat/Sun game rituals have much to deal with on their own without sneering at the RCs. The US sexual cover-ups are beyond the pale. Who's gonna confront such evil without being attacked by the other half - those who will riot in denial of facts. Ireland's RC Saint Patrick should be removed, the next to go. He being Ireland's only real claim to fame with what his teachings and what his monesteries unleashed. Tune in to anything of Ireland and you'll see the depths reached across the board - foul mouthed dingy loones - try RTE for starters.

• joan1954 | Nov 13, 2011, 12:33 PM EST

  The media,no matter what country they are in, tend to put this issue into an overkill mode. Granted, too, the media for the most part is anti-catholic and tend to lump all priests into the category of the few which isn't fair. There are a lot of fine Irish priests out there. Where were the various Irish governmental entities when they were supposed to be doing their jobs?

• cillowen | Nov 13, 2011, 12:32 PM EST

  RC Saint Patrick should be the next to go. He being Ireland's only real claim to fame with what his teachings and monesteries unleashed. Tune in to anything of Ireland and you'll see the depths reached across the board - foul mouthed dingy loones - try RTE for starters.

• gordongoblin | Nov 13, 2011, 11:31 AM EST

  Here are my questions: (i)who is guilty? are we just counting the abusers and not those involved in civering for them? or those who turned a blind eye? that seems overly generous. (ii) what proportion does the bishop feel is acceptable? 1 in 20? 1 in 50? It is pretty clear that whatever the proportion of abusers, the cover up went all the way to the pope. Which is to say it infested the church top to bottom. Trying to downplay that is dishonest.

• Portia777 | Nov 13, 2011, 09:37 AM EST

  Reacting to the poll, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said: “I Iam saddened and horrified to see the results of a recent survey which showed how misled people have been about the extent of abuse by priests."It looks like this man of "god" is still in denial re the extent of child rape and abuse amongst his brothers of Roman church/cult. The injustice still goes on with their secret hearings and aming laws to strip victims of their compensation if they tell anyone. What kind of an organisation is this for goodness sake? Why the secrecy if nothing to hide. Surely the other members of the org have a right to know the truth re the goings on at the top of the patriarchal power pyramid.?