It's horrible that any ever were...but it's not as though "priest" is a synonym for "child sex offender".

Clerical sexual abuse...which happens in other Christian communions and other faiths...is horrible and indefensible, but it's out of line to act as if all clerics, let alone all priests, are guilty of it.

I'm not sure why you felt it had to be referenced here simply because the person this OP was about IS a priest.

I understand and share your anger towards the actual perpetrators and all the institutions which protected them.

Street were not happy. One of their sons spray painted the “ n “ word on our house. I remember my Dad being so angry. Years later this young man became a priest and rang our doorbell one night and confessed to my parents what he did and begged for their forgiveness. It was before he took his final vows. This family went to church every Sunday but were bigoted to us the rest of the week. One of the sons was in my class and never spoke to me nor played with me even though he lived across the street. It wasn’t until 40 years later at our elementary school reunion that he talked with me. He was an ex cop with rotting teeth and I suspect might be closeted gay. Never married, lived in the Russian river area of California. That area has a big gay population. Funny how things turn out.

40 years later? The only "sorry" I see in his story is that he's sorry he got caught. Another shiny moment for the Catholic priesthood.

What he did was reprehensible and he needs to take full responsibility for it(I wouldn't be against him doing time if there were some way to make that happen).

I was simply pointing out that, if somebody was Catholic AND a Klansman, they were confused to say the least, since the Klan was as bigoted towards Catholics and Catholicism as it was towards Jewish and black people. I've deleted that post now, because the observation I made in it wasn't worth the harm caused in making it. I'm sorry.

I'm no apologist for this man's past, or for pedophile priests either-I was simply saying that if we simply assume that ALL priests are pedophiles, I felt that it trivialized the suffering of those actually victimized.

Sadly it's easier to hate than to love. When we're young and impressionable many of us are influenced by those around us who hate, it's far easier and "cooler" than to take a stand against hatred (especially now when we have a bigot residing in the White House). It takes many of us a good many years to see through bigotry and hatred, thankfully Rev. Atcheson has acknowledged his past and set things straight.