"It has been a bad year for the priesthood."

[Jeffersons Ghost]

'Holy Father, what shall we do?'

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

As the Roman Catholic Church suffers one of its worst crises in modern times, more than 10,000 priests from around the world have travelled to Rome to celebrate the end of the International Year of the Priest...

It has been a bad year for the priesthood. Hardly a week has gone by in recent months without some new scandal involving a paedophile Catholic priest - or even the odd bishop - emerging somewhere in the world.

The Vatican has done what it can to limit the damage to the image and the credibility of an organisation that demands unlimited trust on the part of believers. Some of them are now asking themselves whether they should in future entrust their children of tender age to Catholic institutions run by priests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8734850.stm

[noamnety]

1. gotta love that perspective

"Priests are raping children and the church is covering for it!"

Some people would think: "wow, this is awful for children."

The media, the vatican: "wow, this is awful for priests."

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. good point

[dorkulon]

4. +1 "Gee, this oil spill is terrible for BP."

[Bluebear]

5. +

[xjymnastjme]

6. Fantastic.

No focus on the victims, though I'm sure they want their privacy.
At least the perpetrators are exposed to the public.
Do they get listed as sex-offenders from now on?

[AngryOldDem]

3. This is what happens when they constantly refuse to recognize the problem...

...and refuse to do what is right. This scandal has gone far beyond the expertise of the Vatican Public Relations Department.

[xjymnastjme]

7. very true.

far beyond anyone's experience or expertise. We're all stuck in a 'now what?' situation - similar to BP and the Titanic where this was never thought to be possible and now that it's happened, we have no policy, plan or procedure to relegate protocol.

[Jamastiene]

8. The world's smallest violin plays for them.

Nasty bastards and their pedophilia ring got busted, awwwww. :nopity: