Greger, you may be right; flaying - although not to death, min you - may be too harsh. And it may not be best for the guilty priests, but for the hierarchy to which they report.
Mental illness or not, I can guarantee those guilty priests knew that what they were doing was wrong - after all, these are men trained to recognize “sin,†to confess it, and to refrain from sinning again. They are steeped in it. And I can guarantee that these crimes were not committed in complete secrecy. Someone knew - a. monsignor, a bishop, an archbishop - someone knew and someone hid their crimes.
I don’t like priests, which can be difficult because my nephew is one. I don’t see him very often, and when I do, it’s a gingery meeting. He knows I’m an atheists, and I refuse to call him “father.†Still, I try to be happy that he followed his childhood dream - even though it was to become a priest. The church breeds a patronizing attitude into most of its priests and I despise that. I’ve had great experience with nuns, mostly as professors.Priests? No. Priests don’t take the same vows nuns do; I think they’d be better off if they did.
