After all the talk, and public breast-beating, and mea culpas, and the traveling Cardinals, and the meetings with the Peep, and on and on, the Catholic Church has essentially come to a lurching halt right at the brink of progress on the issue of pedophilic priests.
And get this huge DODGE: since most of the abusees were of adolescent age, what happened wasn't "true" pedophilia. Can you believe it? Now they're quibbling over the definition of pedophilia. If the abusee is past puberty, then it ain't pedophilia. The WTBTS must be grinning ear-to-ear.
It was fun to watch, almost hopeful, but in the end the Church acquitted itself of U-turns the governing body would be proud of. I won't attempt to out-report NPR with the details. But essentially there is to be a meeting of bishops in June, and apparently they're going to get their say on the matter.
All the recent hoopla boils down to: pedophilia is bad; priests shouldn't do it; zero tolerance, maybe; more later. Essentially, all sound and fury, signifying nothing - a tempest in a teapot - out, out, damned spot.
It's enough to make one BARF, and I mean that industrial-grade barf with the big chunks. Churches, a rare and a snacket.
Francois