For generations, the people had feared it and the priests had warned of its coming, and now the time has finally arrived, but not as they expected. Judgment day is at hand. Often, a finger was pointed in accusation at those whom they deemed as sinners, but the modern priest who carried that same force of Will wasn't expecting a reversal of roles through Cause and Effect. When all of this is settled, the faithfully blind will continue to live through the Church with no thought that a scandal ever happened, and the rest who often attended Church will question their faith. As for the Church and her accused priests, it's unheard of that the criminal has been given power to create its own laws and punishments.
So why is this scandal out in the open. We can thank the Boston Globe for pushing this story. Marty Baron (editor for the Bosten Globe) had the courage to report on such an unstable issue, and for this he has my respect and gratitude. In the past, major newspapers would not touch the subject of child molestation when it came to church matters. This effort has spread quickly like a wild fire and the church is forced to admit it's flaws, publically.
A meeting was held at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in June, and it was voted upon that priests guilty of child molestation will be removed from their ministry, but not their title of priesthood. This decision angered Catholics who waited for a harsher punishment. Any man otherwise, who may have been guilty of child molestation would have been thrown in jail and forever been known as a child molester, according to his public records, of course, the United States was built with Christian idealism, and the Church has the greatest political force as any organization throughout the world which provides them a means to create their own laws and punishments. In truth, the Church is run like a government.
Although the issue of a zero-tolerance policy was a matter of punishment, Bishops continued to reject this. It's my guess that many more are guilty than having been discovered. Someone is getting protected from this rejection of a zero-tolerance policy. Priests are meant to set an example for the rest of us, so what kind of example have they been setting?