To the leaders of the Catholic Church on this, your most "Holy Day" of Easter

From The New York Times, yesterday, on the priest, one Father Murphy, who sexually abused hundreds of deaf boys and young men in Wisconsin:

"...interviews and documents suggested that Father Murphy, who is accused of molesting as many as 200 boys at the school near Milwaukee, also used his family’s lakefront cottage as a lure in his sexual advances, bringing youths from the school into his home beginning at least in the early 1960s."

It's bad enough this happened at all, of course, but this is the additonal indignity added to this that makes it all so outrageous and such an indictment of the Catholic church:

"Father Murphy interacted freely with children until his death in 1998, never having been punished by the church or local criminal authorities in Milwaukee, according to documents and interviews with people in the area."

As if that, alone, weren't bad enough, there's this:

"In the two years before Father Murphy died, the bishops in Milwaukee and Superior tried to have him defrocked but were dissuaded by Vatican officials who had received a letter from Father Murphy asking for leniency. The Vatican said Father Murphy had shown “apparent good conduct” in the 24 years since he had been removed from St. John’s and sent to Boulder Junction."

"...dissuaded by Vatican officials..."

That's the travesty of this.

This is a terrific, horrific example of what has apparently gone on in far too many places in the world in the Catholic church.

And this is just one person, having sexually abused at least hundreds of boys and young men--these being deaf, additionally--but who was never disciplined by the Catholic Church, apparently in any way.

And there were more, many more, worldwide, from Ireland, we know, to Germany and Switzerland and elsewhere.

That is why we're upset, folks (read: Catholic leaders), and for no other reason.

To the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and priests of the current Catholic church: Don't cloud this with other excuses. Do the research. Found out what happened. Punish the guilty and, most importantly, put into effect--immediately--structures to make certain these things don't happen again.

Enough with the stalling and obfuscating.

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Update: From The Huffington Post, just now (late Sunday morning): "More Evidence Emerges That Pope Benedict Helped Shield Pedophiles Before He Became Pope"

And please don't anyone say "they're out to get him" or the Catholic Church or any such nonsense. It's just the facts, period.

Link to this post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/03/more-evidence-emerges-tha_n_524192.html