I'm sure this has been over and over, but the Bishops are meeting in D.C. today. Apparently the Vatican has watered down their zero tolerance policy, so now they're meeting to discuss it.
One of the bishops today dismissed the conerns of the laypeople and asserted that they were using this controversy to push their 'agenda' for doing away with celibacy.
Every time I hear someone say 'molesting children should be grounds for immediate removal from the priesthood' I think to myself how can you be a priest from JAIL, a.k.a. the place you should be if you are molesting children.
Some people do bring it up, but for the most part the discussion revolves around whether they should remain priests. I'm trying not to be cynical about this, but does it seem to anyone else like the Catholic church really IS (not to be punny) holier than thou, that they can get away with felonies?
I realize some priests were prosecuted, and this may be attributable to a rape-like mindset, where some people would rather just deal with it on their own and not file charges. But you'd think it would the responsibility of parents/community members to make sure that these individuals were jailed, since we're not dealing with a drunken prom date, we're dealing with people who have constant and unfettered access to children.
There are so many injustices in this world without having millions of Catholics afraid to take their kids to Sunday School. The fact that this debate has gone on for more than a YEAR and we still have no decisive action is embarassing to me as a concerned citizen.
C.
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