http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2542655.stm

It's sorry to see so much scandals going on in the Catholic Church. What are your thoughts? How can these things be prevented?

Child abuse by the clergy can't be prevented any more than it could be for anyone else.

However, they could do a better job of punishing those found guilty of it. Zero tolerance, period, game over, you loose, go directly to jail do not pass GO do not collect $200.

--cheers

It's hard for me to understand the logic the Catholic church used to ignore these abuses in the first place.

Politics?
Loss of priests?
Loss of parishioners?
Loss of money?

An institution that should be immune to these kinds of pressures, that should stand for love and righteousness above all DESERVES the contempt that they are now receiving.

I agree with with Digital Patriot. ZERO tolerance.

I do not wish to minimize the suffering of the victims of abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy, but this is far from an exclusively Catholic problem. According to sociologist Philip Jenkins, the Catholic Church is being unfairly tarred as a result of "religious bigotry". On the basis of over twenty years of research, he claims that there is "no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination - or indeed, than nonclergy."

Christian Ministry Resources conducts an annual survey of about one thousand churches nationwide - about 5% of them Catholic. Since 1993, they have included questions about sex abuse. Their surveys indicate that, on average, there are nearly seventy allegations of abuse per week among the predominantly Protestant group. How many of these charges receive the kind of coverage to which an abusive priest is subject?

CMR's findings also show that church volunteers and lay workers are more likely than clergy or paid staff to be abusers. Even more startling, children at churches are accused of sexual abuse as often as are clergy and staff. In 1999, for example, 42 percent of alleged child abusers were volunteers – about 25 percent were paid staff members (including clergy) and 25 percent were other children. According to Jenkins' studies, sex abuse by clergy is virtually equal to abuse by non-clergy: roughly 2% of clergy are guilty of sex abuse of some kind; roughly 2% of married men are guilty of sex abuse of some kind. This is a problem among society at large, rather than a religious or specifically Catholic problem.

What might be more scandalous about abuse by the Catholic clergy is the extent to which it has been covered up by the Church hierarchy. Then again, as we very seldom hear about abuse by Protestant ministers, maybe Catholics are just not as good at covering up as their Protestant counterparts.

I'm not sure I'd agree entirely that the focus on Catholicism is "religious bigotry" (though I'm certain that it plays a part in the media's focus); I believe that the notion of "pedophile priests" just makes better copy. This, by the way, is another media distortion: the vast majority of the clerical sex-abuse scandals now coming to light do not involve pedophilia. In the ongoing Boston scandal, only four of the more than eighty priests labelled by the media as "pedophiles" are actually guilty of molesting young children.

I agree with DP that there is little that can be done to prevent sex abuse, but I certainly feel that the clergy of any denomination should be treated the same as any other sex offenders and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I would further argue that those who assist in covering up their crimes should be charged as accessories.

But, by focussing almost exclusively on the Catholic Church, I'm afraid we might be overlooking a much more serious and widespread problem.

I agree 100% Wertz. Well put

--cheers

I do believe that the there is no more abuse in the Catholic Church than anywhere else,but the degree of cover up is beyond the pale. Law needs to retire or Rome needs to put him "promote' him into a spot where he is not any longer in a position of importance.

I think that priests should be able to get married and that would help rid away with some of the child molestation that is taking place in our clergy. Sex is a normal human craving and these men need to be able to release sexual tension and should be able to love without penalty. Didn't God create both sex and women? Then he also created matrimony and for the church to put limitations on it is wrong. Want to stop the priest from touching little boys, let them get hitched.

I agree. It's inhumane to force ALL clergy to take a vow of celibacy. Some have the gift of celibacy, most do not.

As for there being not much difference in moral failures between the Catholic clergy and others, I wouldn't disagree. However, the clergy should be held to a higher standard than non-clergy. And covering it up is hypocritical. Catholics are supposed to confess their sins to the clergy, yet the clergy can cover-up their own sins?

The difference between the Catholics and the Protestants is that Protestants don't have to take any vows of celibacy. Thus there is a natural outlet for sexual desire for Protestants. Of course, Protestants can and still do commit sexual sins, but at least they don't have a burdensome restriction placed on them of never being able to have sex.