[Keith_Hixson]

The institution becomes more important than individuals. Priests are taught and so are good Catholics: you must protect the Church and its image at all costs. People and even the clergy themselves must sacrifice for the church. Catholics believe Salvation comes through the Church and not necessarily through God or Jesus. (The Catholic Church has pretty good doctrine, some things are messed up in their doctrine.) So the Church and its power and image must be protected at all costs. Once you understand this fact then you can understand why the Catholic Church behaves the way it has in the past and even now.

You tell the parents keep it all quiet. You ship priests on from place to place, because the image of the church must be protected. Of course since the church is the way of Salvation you do what you are told. Bad decisions by the hierarchy always involve cover-up to protect the institution.

The truth and dealing with bad priests, would be best but it might ruin the image of the church. Now we are in the information age. Cover-up is more difficult. The Catholic church, at least in the USA, is having to deal with its sin. And we as Protestants have know for a long time that the corruption in Catholic church means that it can't be God's way to Salvation, but that Salvation comes from God and not through an institution.

Ron,

Being in the fire department you can maybe understand some of the cover-up that goes on to protect the image of the institution. Every mistake made during a medic or a fire call isn't exposed to the public. None of us like to expose our dirty laundry to public scrutiny, and I don't think it is wise to always expose our dirty laundry but when it involves the lives of children or safety of others sometimes we have to it. Also, institutions should take care of their problems, not just ship them around from place to place. If you have a bad fireman, I hope he gets fired and not shipped from one fire hall to the next. But, you don't go to the press and say we have a bad fireman, but you deal with the situation. The Catholic church ships them around rather than deal with the situation.

Travis,
Catholic Priests and Catholic nuns have the normal urges we all have.
Catholic Priests have an extremely high alcoholic rate, something has to cover for those urges. Many Catholic priests have discreet affairs, why do you think Catholic nuns were so abusive to Children in their care, many aren't virgins but just pretending.

Now having said that. The Catholic Church has many fine priests and nuns who are striving to serve God to the Best of their abilities, and for those we must be grateful. The Catholic Church needs to take a close look at itself and reorganize and try to correct its faults in the light of modern research and recent exposures.

Keith