No doubt, and I'll be the first to admit that those who are criminals should pay for their crimes. And they do.
Some of what you are talking about are harmless requests for transfer that are being spun into 'cover ups' . I know you won't admit it, but the media goes absolutely ape shit about any accusation and especially loves to attack religion.
Part of this is learning how to deal with these issues in America, and every organization makes mistakes. The RCC knows it and realizes it has screwed up in the past.
Lyion, we know absolutely about the case of the Archbishop in Boston, who *KNEW* that a priest he was shuffling from parish to parish was molesting kids, knew it for a fact, and continued to move him around, no warnings, nothing. That's why that archdiocese has had that multi-million dollar lawsuit. Yet that same individual got to conduct a mass AT THE POPE SELECTION MEETINGS. He wasn't reprimanded, hell, he was held up obviously as some sort of paragon as he was given such a prominant position there.
Attacking the RCC for its actions of the time is not attacking religion. It is an incontrovertable fact that Catholic priests were molesting children. It is also a fact that the Church conspired to hide this fact from the parishoners, and protected the priests involved. Many of those priests are no longer with the church. Hooray, congrats, good work. Entirely too late, however.
If the church were TRULY on top of things, the moment they knew what was going on, they should have defrocked the individuals in question and turned them over to the police, along with every iota of evidence they had on the cases. If they'd done this, no one would be attacking the actions of the RCC. But that's not what they did, is it? I wasn't aware that any church should need to "learn how to deal with these issues in America" in order to stop priests from molesting little boys.
And I hate to tell you, "realizing it has screwed up in the past" and "making apologies" doesn't cut it, not when those at the center of the events aren't even disciplined, much less kicked out. Hell, the current pope didn't even make any statements against what was going on until very recently.
My parents are very devout catholics. Both are eucharistic ministers, my dad is the highest rank you can get in the Knights of Columbus, he has taught CCD for many years, and they are both senior staff in the Marriage Encounter program. THEY are disgusted with the RCC over this issue. Not enough to leave the church, but certainly enough to be entirely supportive of those suing the RCC.
-Arlos