The fault of the Catholic Church is obvious. Lest obvious has been the role of the civil authorities. In the US and in Ireland, the police overlooked or buried these reports, too. Often, they reported complaints made to them to the Church, and turned it over to the priests to "handle". If the cops won't act on reports of rape and molestation, then you are really alone.....

Would Jesus have wanted a gilded, marble mansion and thrones?
Did Jesus garb himself in the finest linen and jewelry?
Would god shelter and abet child rapists?

The Catholic Church does not represent God's will. It's only a private club of pretentious, flawed men.

Another letter, this time from the Pope. Who is himself tainted. With the wagons circling around him as he speaks of Ireland.
Where is the accountability at the highest levels of the Church? What recourse do the faithful have for the all too evident failings of the privileged, protected and deceitful members of the senior clergy?

What about emotional abuse?
A clergyman can do a great deal of damage without ever touching a child or parishioner. Does anyone reading this have any experience of emotional abuse by a clergyman?
Sometimes it can be something as simple as having favorites—an "inner circle" who have a particular relationship with the priest, while others are excluded.

In response to John L. Allen -- there is a third crime as well. Priests, bishops, all the way up to Joe Ratzinger himself, also undermined the victims' mental and emotional health by denying their experience and in many cases blaming the victims for their own abuse. An immediate and full taking responsibility for this would be a good first step. Don't hold your breath.

The Church should be subject to the law which is of God.
"Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. ...This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, devoting themselves to this very thing..." Romans 13:1-3a,6

"No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account." Hebrews 4:13

"Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly," James 3:1

I was emotionally abused by a Catholic priest at one of the largest Catholic churches in Houston. I was so shocked when it occurred, that I could not think of any response. Of course, I was much younger then. If the same incident occurred today, I would tell that priest exactly what I thought of him. He was not a man of God; he was sadistic and cruel.

Everyone who is attentive in the Catholic Church knows there are two things going on: 1) gay priests having affairs with gay teenagers; 2) priests preying on younger children of either sex.

Just because a person is close to the age of majority doesn't make it right; it makes it different, however. I know of a priest and teen who later moved in together, to their families' horror, and stayed together for decades afterwards. But I also know of priests who preyed on troubled young teens who were abusive, and of abusive and alcoholic priests simply being shuffled around from parish to parish. And we have now heard all the other cases of young children.

So there are several things that need to happen here:

1. The Pope should resign. The scandal is too close to his leadership; the critics within the Catholic community, including priests, who say that he *had* to have known and *had* to have covered this scandal up (because that was the way) are right. That's how it has been done. So it's the right thing to do to step down. We don't need this "repentance" phase rushed along and a false "healing" to take place too soon.

2. Homosexuality should be acknowledged and accepted by the Church; if not the Vatican, then perhaps it will have to be an American Catholic Church that splits from the Vatican.

3. Marriage of priests should be accepted -- again, if not by the Vatican, by the American Catholic Church. Monastic orders can remain for celibate clergy.

4. Birth control should be accepted.

5. Clergy and lay panels should be formed to prevent and monitor for abuse. The problem with how it is being done now is there is one class or course for the parents in the parish, and that's it. Prevention must be institutionalized, and not soley run by the Church hierarchy.

At this point, I believe that anticlericals and trial lawyers are in charge of this little fracas. SNAP is financed by such. They would love to add the Pope's head to a trophy case which includes billions in questionable judgments and settlements, an atmosphere where any accusation is deemed credible, and any credible accusation defrocks a priest. I am not Catholic, or even a Christian. However, I am troubled by this.

The Pope is sending a letter of apology to Ireland? The Catholic Church in all its riches and treasures is becoming a world joke. The Vatican hierarchy lives in a bubble fully removed from the world and from any god who may exist. They just don't get it, and they can never get it. The church is lost. Good riddance! If there is a god, he or she is found in the Cosmos. That is where the "holy book" is written. It is only waiting for more people to peer into its pages.

"Another letter, this time from the Pope. Who is himself tainted"

Only in your mind, and in this slanted reporting.

"Sometimes it can be something as simple as having favorites—an "inner circle" who have a particular relationship with the priest, while others are excluded."

Yes, let's turn the playground into a Gulag.

Please, people, let not the evil of a few priests make you turn away from the Graces God offers you through his Church.

"Hopelessly inadequate" is what Cardinal Sean Brady, admitted when asked about the Churches response to allegations of Priests involvement in child abuse. At Least someone is telling the truth! I mean just so I am clear on what the rules are, is the standard that when someone commits a heinous act and others in positions of authority cover it up, all they have to do is say, "oops, sorry," when they are caught. Because you know if that is the new rule, then we can start closing down all the prisons and jails because I'm sure all the criminals caught from now on will be happy to simply say they are “just so sorry from the bottoms of their hearts”. Seriously though most Priests are there for the people and hate these criminals…this was actually interesting though…
http://ketiva.com...

I remember a therapist telling me once that "intimacy not expressed turns inward and distorts itself"... and this has always rung true for me. I believe the sickness in the Church is in not allowing priests to marry. I just don't believe it is healthy for men (or women) to be prohibited from intimate relations. Why are there so many alcoholic priests? Same reason. Sickness and frustration from not being able to express intimacy. And why were so many nuns brutal when I went to Catholic School? Same reason. Sickness and frustration from not being able to express intimacy. I can't imagine the Church will change anytime soon. I have left the Church because I think it's a sick institution and I'll have nothing to do with it anymore. Perhaps if more Catholics were vocal about how unhealthy they think the Church is... it would resonate at some point?

All dictatorships are rotten to the core. The sooner this one collapses the better off Catholics will be. The laypeople need to take responsibility for their own role in this misery machine.

I think it's pretty clear that molestation results at least in part from priests' celibacy. There is a long history of Buddhist monks similarly molesting children. Until the Catholic Church entertains the idea of letting priests marry or otherwise have sex, they are not taking this problem seriously.

I was educated and emlpoyed in Catholic institutions for a good part of my life and I've observed and learned one thing: the hierarchy of the Catholic Church cannot be touched or moved by shame, moral suasion, logic or appeals to fairness or decency. You want their attention? Hit 'em in the pocketbook....and hard.

I was born and raised Boston Irish Catholic by nuns, priests and brothers. I for one have fully accepted that our leaders are not Holy. There are Holy people who know and love God, but our leaders are not holy. Political people care way too much about material things and are forever grasping at something. The word from the Cardinals was "cover it up" - you heard it first here.

I was subjected to physical abuse at the hands of Catholic nuns at an orphanage. These revelations are finally revealing the situation is rotten from the top down.

Why is it that the Catholic church is against gays but protects pedophiles?

When Prof Cafardi of Duquesne mentions "a sexual abuse crisis like the one the American church weathered in 2002 and the years after" I would respectfully suggest that the American church has not yet "weathered" this crisis. The loss of trust and respect for priests but even more for bishops and ALL of the 'hierarchy" will cost the church, clergy and laity for a long time to come. The fact that the crisis is now clearly international if not global only confirms the basis for mistrust. Jesus reserved some of his harshest words for those who would hurt "these little ones." I cannot but wonder what He would say to all of us for ever allowing this to happen in our church.

Jane Saint, I mean no disrespect to you, but it would be more constructive if you addressed the issue at hand: the horrific victimization of children by pedophile priests and the appalling cover-up by bishops that enabled such abuse to continue and to spread. If you mean to say that the RCC suffers from a "good old boys' network" mentality, in which they often prioritize protecting their fellow clergy over protecting children, then I think you're exactly right. But simply rehashing classically anti-Catholic, iconoclastic rants against marble and linen doesn't contribute much of anything to this discussion. Moreover, it's an unwarranted attack on the many observant Catholics in the world who feel the same moral revulsion toward the sex abuse scandal as you do.

I was emotionally abused since I saw a friend be abused (the priest also exhibited grooming behavior towards me) and cannot go into a rectory. The families and friends of survivors also lost their trust because they could not protect or help the person who was directly abused. There are many, many victims. Who no longer trust the archaic, secretive, machismo hierarchy. Where is the love of Jesus? The bishop of Phoenix worries more about chalices of "precious metal" and do you kneel and bow just properly. Jesus made mud out his own spit and cured a man's blindness on the Sabbath. Do you realize how many man-made laws he broke doing that cure??

So, I am going to Independent Catholic church now, Rome stinks.

One further question, why was a convicted pedophile priest serving in a church where he had access to children? Did the German hierarchy totally ignore what happened in US? Did they think they were immune? What hubris!

I think Pope is okay like most of the presidents or monarch. It boils down to the side kick who surround them that do mischief. Let me take a detour. I kepi on reading about Dubai taking us all for a dive. Who lent the money to the city? Banks and investors. They knew the risk of investing like employing the papal . Their failure to recognize investing blindly and paint all over the papers about Dubai dragging them, is incorrect. First learn the risk management. Then only swim in the water that have sharks. When I visited the Middle Eat I saw the folly of the banks not the local or the Sheikh's whose have the land. We pitch the tents, weather blows these off, we blame the Monarch or the Shiekhs. I think our minds are too narrow. All point at the small thing that may have gone sour as it does at times. It is everywhere. A science of economics must be developed before a science of politics can be logically formulated. Essentially, economics is the science of determining whether the interests of human beings are harmonious or antagonistic. This must be known before a science of politics can be formulated to determine the proper functions of government.-- Claude-Frédéric Bastiat. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

Mr. Cafardi seems to think this was just a PR problem and that the Church should be held to the same standards as any corporation caught in any scandal. Some PR, an outside board to prevent any more molestations, some (not too much) transparency, some money for the victims therapy and problem solved. It's a shame it happened but lets move on.

The problem is that the Church demands to be treated as a morally superior entity that knows best how you should live your life. They aren't selling cars or refrigerators. They are selling themselves as persons whom the rest of us should look to for spiritual guidance regarding living a moral life and as persons whom their flock should give a great deal of power and control of their own lives to.

They demand this exalted status even as the depth and breadth of their immorality, cruelty, hypocrisy and arrogance regarding the predatory pedophiles priests, their protecting and enabling Bishops and their victims is added to year after year after year.

The Church can't have it both ways and they certainly don't deserve the pass regarding their demand to be treated as a moral authority, the very purpose of their existance, while failing so abysmally to live up to the most minimal level of decency themselves.

The Catholic Church is nothing more than a wealthy, arrogant mens fraternity.

The management of the church is incompetent. Like the excutives at GM and Toyota, arrogance and complacency were their undoing. Of course, the church is not a profit driven automobile manufacturer, however, as a group that refers to itself as the 'people of God" and claims moral teaching authority, it has to be beyond reproach. Pope Benedict XVI talks about moral relativism but, when the church authorities, often speaking on behalf of the less fortunate, betrays its most vulnerable members, they lose their moral voice. Talk about realtivizing (is that even a word?) morality. In all fairness, the church does teach that sin is real and this whole scandal proves it. Quod erat demonstradum!

Large institutions develop their own culture and many people become 'institutionalized' over long periods of time which helps lead to scandals when managers, to avoid scandal, try to bury problems. I can not think of too many instances where that worked. Major corporations are required to file and publish infrmation and the church should do the same--get some 'transparency' in there.

The first thing that the Catholic Church needs to do is to conduct a diligent investigation of the extent of the problem. A good first step would be to set up a hot line in each country through which abuse could be reported. A good second step would be to retire any Bishop who had failed to take adequate steps to protect children. A good third step would be to institute protocols for reporting offenses to civilian authorities.

On the other hand, they can continue to 'fix' the problem by issuing letters of apology one country after another.