This story in today's New York Times furthers my point made earlier, and makes me think that I might not be engaging in hyperbole. Perhaps time to call this what it really is?

October 12, 2005

Los Angeles Files Recount Decades of Priests' Abuse
By JOHN M. BRODER

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 11 - The confidential personnel files of 126 clergymen in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles accused of sexual misconduct with children provide a numbing chronicle of 75 years of the church's shame, revealing case after case in which the church was warned of abuse but failed to protect its parishioners.

In some cases, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his predecessors quietly shuffled the priests off to counseling and then to new assignments. In others, parents were offered counseling for their children and were urged to remain silent.