As the disco song sung by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer proclaims: Enough is enough. First let’s start with a truth of the Catholic Church; NOT EVERYONE IS SAVED. I do not think for one second I am automatically going to heaven. But I won’t be going to hell over this dreadful clergy sexual abuse crises. (Maybe something else.) Who will????? Not to sit in judgement of others but I really do think that all the clerics and laypeople who have had a hand in prolonging this terrible and unjust scandal are on the fast track to eternal suffering.

I also believe it is worse to say something will be done and then nothing is done. (One example would be Rome.) This could have and should have been  dealt with even before it became public.  You don’t have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to know that a person, in this case priests, sexually acting out is bad.  And yet there are prelates who pretend, and it is pretending, that they had no idea that this was unacceptable behavior. I put therapists who colluded with bishops on the same fast train to damnation.

One of the things that I have heard said or has been actually said to me is the fact that the Boy Scouts of America, for example, have a worse % of molestations than the priesthood.  Apples and oranges.  Priests are supposed to be held to the highest standard in light of what they purport to believe so even if the % for the Boy Scout molestations is higher ours seem more toxic. I would have to consult a therapist about that…victimization is destructive no matter who does it.

How is anyone supposed to trust a hierarchy that lies at every turn? And they have lied, remember Mr. McCarrick formerly Theodore Cardinal McCarrick and Donald Cardinal Wuerl  just to name two. They are legion. Luckily it isn’t about them it is about God.  Then you have the unwashed masses who come out in support of priest molesters because they cannot believe such a good and holy priest did such a thing.  My answer to that is you obviously did not know the man so…shut up.

Let me be the first to acknowledge that there are some false accusations but they are miniscule and I will, and have, supported both priests and laity who have emerged from this scandal after being found not guiltily.

I am very aware that I am not the brightest bulb in the marque nor am I the dimmest.  I will say that I managed to get ordained in spite of the millstone around my neck that is being molested by a priest, not that it was without struggle. I also have managed to stay in the priesthood in spite of working for my abuser. (That would be the Church.)

Enough is enough! Maybe we as a Church are supposed to give up our assets as justice dictates. Maybe we are to be a smaller yet more faithful Church. And here is a thought that is really out there, (sarcasm).  Let’s let God lead. Man has just mucked it up.