It has been documented that those men who are unhappy, whether they stay in the priesthood or leave it, do not have any dedication to a personal prayer life.  The fact is that we desperately need to be praying in our own lives to keep our priesthoods from becoming drudgery.  It has also been my experience and the experience of so many priests I know, but not documented, that having some sort of prayer life makes it a little easier in resisting sin, sinful impulses, and in general doing stupid things…  And I can freely admit that I am sinful, just like everyone else.  We are a sinful people with a loving and forgiving God.  All we need to do is acknowledge our sin to God and ask for forgiveness.  

The questions I have do not involve those priests who molested others, it is obvious that they were unhappy and/or not praying.  There was no base in their lives, no touchstone, no cooperation with the Grace of God, hence they committed abominable evil. But what about the bishops that allowed it to go on unabated?  What about all the other priests that were active in the cover-up?  What about the priests and laity that acted as enablers?  What was their prayer life-like then and now? 

How can those that were involved in this atrocity, this affront to humanity claim in any way that: 1. They pray 2. That the Holy Spirit had anything to do with this 3. That they pray.  I mean really, the collective behavior of the clergy in all of this, is not Catholic and in fact is anti-Catholic/has nothing to do with God/and is diabolical, (diabolical in the influence of evil not “the devil made me do it”).

How is it that people inside the Church, and outside for that matter,  are not making the connections of how the clergy sexual scandal and its bad handling is effecting the Church on the inter-national, national, and parish level?  It is true that we do not attend mass/Eucharist for men but for God and God alone but it is equally true that the men at the altar matter more than they should to a lot of parishioners.  That leads back to the great need for prayer.  God will do what God does and even this current darkness will succumb to God’s light!