After many years of fighting this terrible sacrilege known as clergy sex abuse I was beginning to weary and then something like the story in the Los Angeles Times about how intricately Roger Cardinal Mahoney was involved in the cover-up of sexual abuse in his archdiocese. http://graphics.latimes.com/mahony/

Removing all of the “Red Herrings” that have been tossed out by some dioceses, clergy, and some of the so called faithful, let’s get right down to the core of the issue.  When a man is ordained for the deaconate he promises then and there that he will be celibate, (not marry).  The Catholic Church teaches that people, men or women, who are not married are not allowed to engage in any sexual activity.  Ergo, the priests who did engage in sexual activity including the diabolical engagement of sexual abuse, (not just with minors but of course that is at the forefront), not only broke the law, they also broke their promises to God and the bishop who ordained them.  Then instead of being the light of Christ so many bishops and their underlings defected to the dark side, the evil side, and did nothing but impede investigations, sometimes by making sure there was no investigation at all.  

Everyone sins, I know that, but there is a marked difference in a sin such as missing mass on Sunday and molesting and then members of the hierarchy covering up that molestation.  This is the bottom line; When a man is ordained for the deaconate he promises then and there that he will be celibate, (not marry).  The Catholic Church teaches that people, men or women, who are not married are not allowed to engage in any sexual activity.