I absolutely believe that church officials intentionally sent abusive priests to minor communities, transient communities, where kids may be less apt to tell and have less faith in the justice system.

309

At best, it's a distraction; at worst, it's damaging. It will feed the mistaken notion that [the abuse scandal] is about the behavior of priests and not the behavior of bishops. Gay seminarians didn't hire and transfer and cover for child-molesting priests. It was bishops who did that.

269

Church officials will vehemently deny they still reassign these men. But the sad truth is that they do.

238

Bishops have tried to hide this for years, so there is no reason to believe all of a sudden they would change their ways. The only prudent thing to do is to assume this is not the entire truth. This is a survey, not a report or investigation.

237

It's easy to see the Vatican is wildly inconsistent.

206

It's not about Jenkins or Appleby or even Notre Dame. It's about church leaders who choose to make it even harder for victims to report criminals.

133

He's made such hurtful and misguided comments about the crisis. He's had ample opportunity to correct them, and hasn't.

131

Thousands of victims haven't reported and dozens of bishops aren't telling all they know. They have no incentive to.

124

The Catholic laity doesn't know what priests the Vatican is being asked to sanction. They don't know what the bishops are recommending. We don't know why some get no sanctions, some get minimal sanctions and some get removed from the priesthood. If sanctions are imposed, it is often months before it's announced. And there seems to be absolutely no monitoring of these prayer and penance guys.

114