I must be missing something and I apologize if this has been discussed before...

[b]..but if you or I were to have sexual contact with a minor, we would be tried, convicted and sent to prison for a period of time.[/b]

I was listening to this bishop's conference thing on the radio, and they were talking about removing abusive priests and sending them to monasteries or nursing homes or some other protected areas, presumably away from personal contact with the parish.  Why are they not held criminally liable for their behavior and sent to jail?

I'm not Catholic so I don't understand why this defrocking thing is such a horrible punishment for the sexual offenders.  It actually sounds like a retirement plan.

I'm not Catholic bashing - just curious why there is so little discussion about criminal charges filed against criminals.  If there is indeed an alleged conspiracy within the church, why isn't the FBI involved?

I don't think some diocese will stand for it.  Hope they all raise HELL.

 It seems the guardians of what is right and what is wrong are having trouble deciding what is right and what is wrong. Right?

 All jokes aside, I don't know what the confusion is concerning this issue. If a priest shot somebody. The police show up and take the man to jail, do not pass go. Why are these CRIMINALS walking free in our society?

I cannot understand why more Catholics aren't up in arms about this.  How does it reflect upon your church when this type of behavior is ok?

Not being Catholic, maybe I'm missing something, but how can this be considered acceptable?  I know that if this was happening in my church, not only would we leave, but whomever touched my children would get to explain himself before God sooner than he expected.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Speaking of "criminal prosecution" arent the bishops and
cardinals guilty of being accomplices. After all they knowingly
transfer child molesters to new neighborhoods chock full of
fresh victims.

The Pope knows all about this stuff and has for years. And it all boils down to money. The churches power lies in its wealth. They don't want to lose any of that so they have been paying hush money for 20 years or better. Maybe thats why the previous Pope, John the 1st, may have been killed. Ya know they don't do autopsies on popes. He may have wanted to make this scandal public, but the "church" had other ideas. Always thought there was something fishy about that popes death.

  Defrocking? What is that like getting fired? Nothing short of cleaning house from the bottom to the heirarchy will be acceptable to anyone of any religion. If it means only a few men are left. Then they will become the new custodians of the truth and the religion will be allowed to recover.

It would have been a miracle of the bishops enacted a zero tolerance policy.

Why?

Because too many of them are guilty or personally know someone who is guilty.  If they enacted a zero tolerance policy, their own ranks would be thinned and the widening of the scandal that immediately caused would be horrific.

So they are engaging in some damage control enacting a much stricter policy, but hoping to do it without destroying themselves and their friends.

Defrocking a priest strips them of all benefits and pensions.  It essentially erases their resume for however long they have been a priest.  Sort of like being dishonorably discharged from the military. It's a pretty harsh punishment and makes getting on with your life REAL hard.

The church's internal punishments have NO bearing on civil and criminal punishments.  So a priest who is defrocked, or even taken away from active ministry and confined to monastaries, may still be tried and convicted in secular courts.  

Hopefully the church will reveal all it's internal documents on these predators and help to facilitate some secular procedings, but I wouldn't count on it for past offenses.

I bet we'll see a lot of priests retiring in the near future, or maybe just putting off their vocations to enter the secular world hoping to hide in the general morass of humanity.

All that said, the bishops fouled up.  The only way to restore their credibility was a ruthlessly honest zero tolerance policy and a policy of complete disclosure, opening their books and records for the light of day and letting the chips fall where they may. The measure they decided upon today is entirely political.

This kind of crap is why I left the Roman church.

You realize that once a priest has been defrocked he can no longer frock anyone.  I don't know about you, but if I couldn't frock I'm not sure life would be worth living.

Priests aren't supposed to be going around frocking anyway.

I still say the Pope is behind the cover-up. And John Paul lst was murdered by the real people in charge of the church. The ones that control the MONEY. Think about it, a healthy, happy Pope, been pope for about a month, goes to sleep one night and doesn't wake up. No autopsie. Sniff Sniff, I smell money.

Alright...is 'frock' a noun or a verb?