madharry,
If there was a crime, there's need to be a punishment, but I agree with you about the monetary damages. IMO, monetary damages should usually be limited to situations where there were ill-gotten gains (which don't apply here), situations where there was a loss of income, and probably a few other situations.
All I see is a downside here because the communities that these churches serve are the ones being punished by monetary damages when it should be the guilty priests and the Bishops that hid things.
IMHO, these monetary damages are really about something else in many cases. There are vested interests looking to destroy the Catholic church. What better way to destroy it than to "break it" and reduce its influence.
That is why I consider many of the opponents of the Catholic Church "EVIL" even though I'm not particularly religious myself.
It's one thing to point out crimes by the church or to have honest disagreements with church doctrine and discuss them in an honest and balanced way.
It's another to set out to discredit and destroy it with lies, spins, exaggerations, shake downs, portraying it poorly in TV, movies etc... These are evil people that are willing to destroy something that overall is a huge plus for society because they disagree with a handful of its values (typically on issues of reproduction, birth control, sex, and abortion). |
