A helpful suggestion on clerical sex abuse

              Even very nominal Catholics must read about these pedophilia

    horror stories with some sad nostalgia for the days when the Church in America

    commanded awesome respect. It seems that 40s , 50s, and early 60s were its

    golden age here.

                Was the institution infested with perverts back then ? I do

    think there was a stronger MYSTIQUE to the Church in  pre-Vatican II era.

    Priests and nuns rarely put on the " regular guy " act. Their dignity

    demanded a certain aloofness from the laity.  They knew better than to get

    over-familiar with  members of their parish. Back then I can't imagine

    an ordinary Catholic getting past the lobby of the stately rectory where

    his favorite priest lived.

                So even if there were more than a few priests with wicked proclivity
    * back then, the DIGNITAS of the institution inhibited them.

                 Not pretending to be an ardent Catholic today, I am still turned

    off by priests and nuns whose vulgar manner suggests no VOCATION at all.

               Was the Church corrupted by the so-called sexual revolution ?

              Yesterday I heard a radio talk show host mock a very appealing

    young lady who said she believed in chastity and " saving it " for marriage.

               The Church is not alone in its moral decay.

              You can laugh at that old Baltimore Catechism but at least it hinted

    that the universe had a moral structure along with natural laws.

          How did we ever get so lost ?