Some ugly facts on child sexual abuse

This past June, Pope Benedict XVI said the church must promise "to do everything possible" to ensure that the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests "will never occur again."

But the president of the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was not satisfied. She said, "Right now, kids are being assaulted by priests and bishops are concealing the crimes. And the pope continues taking no action to stop this." She said that the pope still ignores the main problem: "the ongoing recklessness, deceit, and callousness of bishops who, even now, protect predators instead of children."

The executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference had an answer to the problem. "We believe that if women had a say in the church, if there was more accountability and more transparency, [then] the men would have been held more accountable."

The issue of sexual abuse by Catholic priests is so commonplace that it is the subject of late-night "humor."

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