Yeah, the Catholic Church is absolutely crawling with illogical inconsistencies that to me, imply some rather dubious consequences (celibate priests, no contraception etc.

But what needs to change even more are local laws to prevent them from extending such anti-democratic power over Australian society- Tony Abbot's absolute reign over medicine, and World Youth Day being major white elephants.

And there is the matter in some countries where Catholic politicians are effectively blackmailed with excommunication for voting against Catholic teaching.

Dear mjpb,

Paul Collins has written quite a lot on
sexual abuse. Too much for me to quote
all of it here. However, I will quote a
part of it:

"The most crippling reality that priests
have to face is the sexual abuse crisis.
They find themselves the butt of nasty jokes,
their profession derided and they are
looked upon with considerable suspicion by
people who often know nothing about the
Catholic church and certainly don't know any
priests personally... No one is denying that
sexual abuse of children is horrendous and
intolerable and that the failure of the
church to deal with it effectively has done
immeasurable damage to victims. The cover-ups,
the protection of abusive clergy and the refusal
to admit egregious mistakes are unjustifiable...
Nowadays, however, ecclesiastical superiors are
proactive and move with alacrity when accusations
are made..."

Just to clarify what csteele is trying to tell us:

If it's homosexual paedophilia then the perpetrators must be heterosexual,
because homosexuals engage in good homosex
and heterosexuals engage in bad homosex.

Glad we got that straight.

“…it is up to Catholics themselves to change”

Well, yes runner, it is up to them to make the necessary changes. But it is also up to the wider community and government to apply pressure to see that they do make those changes.

The negative aspects of the Catholic Church pervade mainstream society, not least with the paedophilia issue. So they must not just be left entirely to make amends in their own good time.

“If people are serious about reducing child sexual abuse they could target the perverted porn industry which is adding to an epidemic of child abuse.”

Really? Could you explain your reasoning.

csteele,
While the John Jay report in the USA determined that 81% of the victims were boys,
the more recent Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
determined that only 70% of the victims were boys.
You were right as usual.
The problem seems to be trending increasingly heterosexual.

Shadow Minister <"For centuries, the Catholic rule of "celibate" priests has attracted the worst sexual offenders, and due to the scarcity of straight men drawn to the order, the church has needed to shield these paedophiles from the law."

While I am not trying to stand up for the Catholic church, SM seems to assume that because their Priests are required to be celibate that this causes them to be paedophiles?

He also seems to think that the priests are more likely to be homosexuals?
Where is the evidence that homosexuality is linked to pedophilia SM?

What of the many married Anglican ministers and those from other churches who also abused children?
What about those that abused girls? Where does the homosexuals you speak of fit in there?

Paedophiles will seek out children anywhere and anyway they can, because that is their only goal. If they enter religious orders (or scout groups, sporting groups etc) they have more chances of accessing more children. It has nothing to do with celibacy or homosexuality.

The Catholic church still has a long way to go before they can leave this terrible cover-up of paedophile priests in their midst behind them.

The news today tells us that paedophile priests in the Catholic church of Ireland were still being shuffled from Parish to parish after being accused of child sexual abuse as late as 2004.