The homosexual abuse of young boys by priests is a terrible thing,
but the church's response of vetting applicants for the priesthood
for homosexual proclivities is the worst kind of discrimination.

No Proxy! This thread is not about homosexuality at all!
This thread is about some Priests and Brothers wanting and having sex with children - both boys and girls.
This is called paedophilia.

How is that related to homosexuality? Are you suggesting that all the Priests who abused children were homosexuals?

There is absolutely no proof that homosexual people are more likely to sexually abuse children than any other person.

Damn pesky homosexuals. Ruin EVERYTHING.

...them and COMMUNISTS.....and them thar Mooslums. Yeehaw.

The BBCs "Dateline" journalists had a discussion on this topic,
which I found most informative, for it gives us the broader
European opinion. Its a shame that they don't do transcripts.

It seems that instructions went out from Rome to bishops, to
keep things a secret. So clergy were simply moved around, when
an incident arose. At that time Ratzinger was responsible for
these matters at the Vatican, so his credibility as pope is
the big issue here. In country after country, more abuse and
cover ups are coming to light.

The various foreign correspondants seemd to agree that more and
more 1st world Catholics are voting with their feet and leaving
the church, especially in the US, Germany and the rest of Europe.
So the Catholic Church is expected to shrink even more in the
first world, as it keeps losing credibility and rely on the third
world for its flock of true believers

suzeonline,
How can you neatly quarantine this issue from homosexuality?
More than 80% of the abuse is homosexual in nature whereas the percentage of homosexuals in the population is around 2%.
As I said, it's a terrible thing to discriminate against homosexuals but that doesn't alter the facts of this issue.
Interestingly, international studies of teacher on student abuse report only an average 43% rate of homosexual abuse, with Ireland at a high of 63%, Australia at 48% and USA at a low of 35%, amongst other countries.

I'm sorry Proxy, you've lost me.
What homosexual abuse are you talking about?

You do realize there are male and female homosexuals in our community?
Are you suggesting there is rampant female to female homosexual abuse in the Catholic church then?

Or is it that you are confusing grown men having anal sex with boys as homosexuality?
It isn't, it's called paedophilia.

Let me spell it out for you. Some paedophiles abuse girls and some abuse boys, while others abuse both.
Paedophile Priests and Brothers have traditionally had more access to boys, and thus have had more opportunity to abuse them than girls.

All are very sick, nasty people, but NOT all are homosexual.