the Catholic Church

It hasn't been going well for the Catholic Church for the past 20 years, and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better soon. Monsignor William Lynn, the highest ranking priest charged in the child molestation scandal, said in court that he typed and kept a list of 35 deviant priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. According to Lynn, he couldn't do anything because he answered to the Archbishop.

Sounds like the Nazis after WWII to me--"I did nothing. I said nothing. I knew nothing." In Lynn's case, we know that the first two are true--he did nothing and he said nothing. But, we also know that the third is definitely NOT true--he knew PLENTY.

What about farther "up the chain"? Joseph Ratzinger, the current pope, was the former pope's chief of staff. He had to know plenty too. Is it reasonable to believe that the former pope, Karol Wojtyła, knew nothing? I don't think so.

The laity has lost respect for the church's hierarchy, not only for their failures in addressing child molestation by priests in the recent past, but also for their continued "stone-walling". ... "Wordsmith" the Roman missal, but don't "come clean" on child molesting priests and the hierarchy's role in covering it up.

Talk about your "stand-up" guys! It's disgusting!