Just a few questions:

• Why is the first, and pretty much only question, the affect this scandal will have on the November elections?
• Why is the second question whether this guy is lying about his alcoholism and prior contacts with deviant clergy?
• Why is the third question the affect of the scandal on the homosexual community?

Shouldn’t the first, second, third, and fourth question concern the welfare of these young men who have been victimized?

For some reason people assume that if you’re sixteen years old and male you can’t be abused or victimized (by either sex). It’s part of the dichotomy between excessive Victorian guilt over sexuality and living in a society where everyone is expected to engage in sexual behaviors as early and as often as possible.

• That boy and the hot teacher —“ ‘Oh, oh, oh, wish it was me.’
• ‘Mom, dad, how should I respond if someone comes on to me? — Oh son, lets not talk about it, its dirty.’

It seems to me that Catholic Christianity has a lot to say about the proper ordering of sexual celebration within marriage and the relationship between healthy desire, pleasure, and commitment (what everyone wants —“ but no one will say, and what all parents should discuss with their children).

And if you don’t think that this person’s lechery and disjointed personality have had an affect on these young men, forcing them to question their sexuality at an age where everything is appearances, and forcing them to loose what little faith they have in the pillars of society, while they still have some modicum of faith in the ‘establishment’, you are deluding yourself.