Deliver us from Evil

I watched a very frightening documentary on the weekend about the widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. The documentary talked mainly about a case in California where a priest from Ireland sexually abused children as young as 9 months old (gross), the Bishops knew about it, and they simply moved the priest around the state to different parishes until he got into trouble again. They also made sure to block any police investigations. So the abuse continued for about 20 years. At the end of it, this man terrorized more than 100 kids - he was eventually brought to trial, but the night before he was to testify about how the church knew of his "problem", the Bishops swooped in and made him a cash offer to not disclose their role in the abuse. The priest served about 7 years in California jail, and then the Catholic church moved him back to Ireland where he walks around free.

Warped. There are more than 100,000 cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the US alone! The Catholic church has paid out more than 1 billion dollars in settlements to sexual abuse victims. They estimate that approximately 10% of priests are pedophiles. It is a huge cover up ..... leading all the way up to the Pope. They know that this stuff is happening, but they cannot afford to let people know (I don't know - 1 billion sounds like a lot of cash for a "secret").

In order to be a good Catholic, just show to church, give them your money, and keep your mouth shut. I'm thinking that's not exactly what Jesus had in mind .....