LA Cardinal Mahony shielded sexual predators within the Catholic Church

And something like this will always happen until the RC church rescinds celibacy. Because celibacy is as natural and wholesome as constipation.

The world is aware of the pedophile priests and their protectors. Until the Catholic Church thoroughly investigates each and every priest and member of the church hierarchy complete with lie detector tests and cleans house including those in the Vatican, no one will have any respect for the Roman Catholic Church. Not only is the church rife with molesters, it also has been laundering money for the Italian mafia. Much of the vast riches were obtained through wars against non Catholics and stealing their possessions. What a legacy the Roman Catholic Church is leaving for the future. These criminals and those who protect them should spend the rest of their life in jail. It might prepare them for where they are going after death.

defending the indifencible,no decent rightous man,black brown ,blue,or yellow would ever seek to hide such evil men as these,and its one of the reasons the church is held in such contempt by some,there is no place in any organization for such as these.and the leaders of these organizations should have made that plain,2,000 years ago,And what of the many thousands of decent men and women in organisations tainted by the actions of these.

Mortimer74 is reduced to arguing that 'everyone was doing it.'Smyrnian thinks that holding the Church accountable for an international scandal that victimized and abused children is 'anti-Catholic muckraking.' With defenders like these two, who needs enemies?

The question is, what has the RC Church done to reduce the problem of clerical sexual abuse of children? It tightened up canon law to make it easier to kick abusive priests out of the Church -- and turn them loose on unsuspecting children because their bishops had not initiated police investigations, so the sexual predators are not identified as sex offenders. Yes, Cardinal Dolan and others have gifted our society with unprosecuted, unregenerate, and unidentified ex-priest sexual predators. Bishops' conferences have produced rules, and in the USA, diocesan bishops like Finn have routinely ignored and circumvented lay boards appointed to investigate allegations of sexual abuse. Given what RC has done to deal with its continuing problem of sexually predatory clergy, we can only anticipate many more scandals like the L.A. cases in the news. If I have "an agenda," Mortimer, it's keeping up the pressure until Catholics demand from themselves and their hierarchy a serious and honest response to this horrific continuing problem, in the form of full cooperation with law enforcement -- full disclosure of all past records and immediate reporting of all current evidence. An end to cover ups now!

“We would be naïve and dishonest were we to say this is a Roman Catholic problem and has nothing to do with us because we have married and female priests in our church. Sin and abusive behavior know no ecclesial or other boundaries." Rt. Rev. William Persell, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Good Friday Sermon, 2002.

"But the facts—and the selective way they are dealt with in too much of the mainstream media—do suggest that the story line declaring the Catholic Church a uniquely perverse institution is a lie; those who perpetrate it are either ignorant bigots, or people with agendas other than the protection of young people, or both." (George Weigel, firstthings website, Dec 5th 2012) (George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.)

Hilarious! eiriamach would have us believe that her beloved Episcofailin' church is somehow exempt from sexual abuse problems. She knows the real figures like everybody else. She is an embittered hypocrite, deluded by her all-too-obvious agenda.

This has been said before, but deserves repeating. The Church should finally disregard Matthew 5:28, at least in the literal sense. It should also distance itself from the guilt ridden confessions of St. Augustine. When a more enlightened attitude towards human sexuality is achieved, guilt will be eradicated. Responsibility should be stressed, in the place of guilt. Always respect the needs of one's partner, and be sure that partner is of legal age. The exception to the last would be near age, consenting teens. Catholic schools should immediately stop warning dancing teens to "leave some room for Jesus", as was depicted in a 1970's movie. If this Jesus needs to get between a boy and girl dancing, he has a problem! A visit to an earthly shrink would then do him much good!

Mortimer thinks that the RC abuse problem is not as extensive as elsewhere -- wrong! As Ray Boucher, a lawyer in the L.A. cases, told the NY Times, the files that the diocese must release will be “particularly damning” evidence of “wanton disregard for the health and safety of children, and a decision by the highest members of the church to put its self-interest and the interest of abusive priests ahead of those of children.... the public will begin to understand just how deep a problem this is.” Other religions have sex-abuse problems too. This week an ultra-Orthodox Jewish therapist was sentenced by a Brooklyn court to 103 years in prison for prolonged abuse of a client beginning when she was 12. (In fact most of the convictions so far have been of conservative priests and rabbis, for example, Opus Dei Bishop Finn of Kansas City.) But some Churches have handled cases well and taken steps to safeguard children. For example, In 1984 Episcopalian priest Margo Maris heard one woman's story of being sexually abused by a male priest. Fr Maris together with other women clergy, some of whom had law degrees, launched a comprehensive policy and strategy for dealing with sexual misconduct in their Church. By 1992, the EC had paid $7 million in claims from victims but had few new cases, in comparison to the RC's $800 million in claims between 1980 and 98 with many cases emerging since then. Not only Episcopal priests, but vestry members as well are now trained to spot sexual abuse cases. This shows what women can contribute when they have a voice in their religion!

Since the abuse scandal came to light in 2002, politically oriented, power driven clergy, here and in the Vatican have been "a plague" on the victims and the house of God. In every city can be seen, churches being torn down to pay of the huge cost of abuse litigation.The last two papacies have enabled tremendous harm to the church, its people and the good clergy who attempted to report these atrocities. I truly can't believe, these men, even believe in God, to allow such harm to be done to children.

"Moral relativism" is a smear tactic that Roman Catholics use to label those who disagree with Vatican moral teachings. For example, Gearoid04 wrote recently on "Irish Priest to break silence,..." "Catholic doctrine and tenets in relation to the priesthood and sexual matters are not influenced by relativist secular currents" (He thinks the equality of women is only a "secular current" rather than an eternal teaching of Christ!) So it strikes me as ironically, ludicrously funny that SeamusMor says, "It is unjust to judge actions taken (or not taken) in the past by contemporary standards" as though it were not always wrong for priests to rape children! And Phan says sexual abuse of children was "Standard Operating Procedure," implying that it was morally OK because everyone was doing it! And Mortimer thinks "In hindsight they made some questionable decisions, but so did every other institution which took professional advice on this matter in those days," as though the morality of Catholic clerics is relative to the morality of "every other institution"! No, guys, you're spouting moral relativism, which your pope condemns--except when he does it or other Catholics do it to defend Catholic immorality! Sexual abuse was wrong when bishops covered it up in the 1960s and 1990s, it is wrong now, and it was wrong when priests of Baal raped boys in their temples in ancient times. To think you can make it OK by appealing to the immorality of the times or of others is hypocritical moral relativism, and clear evidence that tolerating immorality in your priests has blinded you to the eternal moral law.

"Jewish Therapist Sentenced to 103 Years for Child Sexual Abuse" (2013/01/23)New York Times. It seems IC is interested in generating a conversation about the epidemic of child sexual abuse. Just a little surprised that the above - shocking - case was not mentioned. I'd imagine there are more readers in Brooklyn than LA. Might be interesting to explore the ramifications of this case, no? But it didn't seem to meet the strict editorial criteria. I wonder what those might be with regard to such a serious matter as child sexual abuse. Perhaps IC should be more respectful of non-Catholics and also cover the many (and more numerous)instances of child abuse in other religious and secular institutions.

"Jewish Therapist Sentenced to 103 Years for Child Sexual Abuse" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/nyregion/nechemya-weberman-sentenced-to-103-years-in-prison.html It seems IC is interested in generating a conversation about the epidemic of child sexual abuse. Just a little surprised that the above - shocking but not abnormal - case was not mentioned. I'd imagine there are more readers in Brooklyn that LA. Might be interesting to explore the ramifications of this case, no? But it didn't seem to meet the strict editorial criteria. I wonder what those might be with regard to such a serious matter as child sexual abuse.

Usual IC anti-Catholic muckraking. They have some agenda.