The Unbelieveable Level of Denial Among the Catholic Laity

I posted a comment on a prior post concerning the Catholic Church (http://michael-in-norfolk.blogspot.com/2007/11/more-catholic-church-hypocrisy.html) because - in my view - it typifies the mindset of the Catholic laity that in part has enabled the Catholic hierarchy to avoid punishing the host of bishops and cardinals that engaged in cover up of sexual abuse of minors by predator priests. I can think of no other organization where this systematic cover up by high level officials would not have lead to mass dismissals and/or demotions.

In the comment the poster makes the remark that "While some church leaders clearly protected predators and hindered the process of protecting children, their number is so few as to not even register." I am not sure by what definition she defines "so few." The Daillas Morning News had a special report on the cover up by U. S. Bishops and found as follows:

"Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a systematic practice that spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning News review shows. The study - the first of its kind - looked at the records of the top leaders of the nation's 178 mainstream Roman Catholic dioceses, including acting administrators in cases where the top job is vacant.

Excluded from the study were auxiliary bishops who, in larger dioceses, serve in subordinate roles but still can vote on many matters before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the 17 bishops who lead eparchies, which are diocese-like entities that worship according to the Eastern rite."

The full story can be found here: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/dallas/2002/priests.cgi Of course, this story only looks at the U. S. Bishops. When one looks at the picture world wide, the total number becomes very large. Moreover, some of the auxiliary bishops not counted have moved on to be bishops of dioceses and cardinals in a few cases with no accountability being exacted for their past malfeasance. I'm sorry, but Catholics in denial need to do their homework better before they try to reprimand me for not knowing my facts. Believe me, I have followed the abuse story closely and thoroughly for over 6 years. The Church hierarchy (including Benedict XVI who like his predecessor, has not removed any bishops involved in cover ups) is morally bankrupt and should not be taken seriously until a full housecleaning is done of the offending bishops and cardinals.