in all the coverage of the pederast priests, one question appears to be unaskable: why are so many priests into this? you know 'what do we do about this problem?' is one question. the other is: how did we get the point where you have hundreds (at least) of priests abusing thousands of boys in all the corners of the globe? is this supposed to be a coincidence or something? because it sounds to me more like a widespread well-known tolerated or encouraged practice, something one knows one is getting into as one heads into one's career or something. i don't know about you, but i can't look at a roman catholic priest without wondering. and that would include the whole hierarchy. you know you look at the pope and worry about the cover-up etc. but you also look at the pope and wonder about his...history of sexual expression.