Wayne Besen has an excellent column up, Blind At The Holy See, that paints a picture of a church in crisis, one drowning in moral failings because of its handling of the sexual predator priests in its midst. It was just this week that the L.A. Diocese announced a $600 million settlement over more than 500 clergy abuse cases.

In the wake of sex scandals involving children, the Roman Catholic Church should either change its mores or close its doors. Since 1950, the United States arm of the church has paid an astounding $2 billion to settle claims of childhood sexual abuse. Yes, that is billions with a capital “B” that could have gone towards raising orphans, housing the homeless and feeding the “foodless.” Instead, the church has had to reach deep inside its pockets, because some priests can’t keep their hands out of the pants of others.

The church simply cannot continue its practice of recruiting spiritual leaders from a pool of repressed, self-loathing, sexually and emotionally stunted men and not expect a sordid sequel.

Wayne outlines that unless pedophile-enabling Papa Ratzi and the church change thinking on 1) celibacy and allowing priests to marry, 2) ordaining openly gay people, and 3) allowing women into the priesthood, the pathology will continue.

***

This article made me wonder — what ever happened to Mark Foley? It seems as though he’s dropped off the face of the earth after he went into “rehab.”

Miami Archdiocese Settles Abuse Lawsuit That Named Foley Priest.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami has settled a sexual abuse lawsuit that named a priest who acknowledged having inappropriate encounters with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley.

The settlement was announced Wednesday in the lawsuit unrelated to the Foley case. A man who was an altar boy at St. James Church in North Miami alleged the Rev. Anthony Mercieca sexually abused him in the 1970s when he was about 13 years old.

The man, identified only as John Doe 26, claimed Mercieca molested him in the church’s bell tower after a bicycle ride together.

The lawsuit was filed Oct. 25, about a month after Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned from Congress after his sexually explicit computer messages to young male pages surfaced. His lawyer later said Foley was alcoholic, gay and had been molested as a boy by a clergyman.

After the flip, links to The Blend’s Foley Chronicles.A blast from the past:
*  Three more pages speak to ABC about Foley’s ‘approaches’
* Insane defenses
*  Caption this – Tom Reynolds and Laura Bush
*  Thursday AM Foley roundup
*  Hastert: I’ll resign if it will help the GOP
*  Gingrich: Dems’ sex scandals are worse / Drunk Foley showed up at page dorm
*  The List
*  Kirk Fordham’s the first to go
*  dKos Cheers & Jeers on Foleygate
*  Qs of the day – who’s going down/career advice for Foley
*  Glenn’s on Foley fire…
*  Wednesday AM Foley update
*  How low can you go — Tom Reynolds hides behind children
*  Foley’s attorney: he was molested by a priest as a child
*  OK, enough. Hastert has to go NOW.
* Dear Leader speaks…
*  Foley interrupted floor vote to have cybersex with page
* Page threatened, Foley still using AOL screen name
*  Eating their own – Boehner drop kicks Hastert
*  Tuesday AM Foley roundup
*  More GOP family values: Foley aide tried to cut a deal with ABC’s Ross
*  More info on Foley’s well-known predator rep among pages
*  They knew about Foley in 2001
*  There should not be silence
*  GOP leadership: spinning for the election home stretch, but nowhere to run on Foley
*  More Foleygate
*  Foley blasted ‘vile’ Clinton in 1998 for his ‘sad sexual addiction’
*  Resolution for ethics probe over Foley passes 410-0
*  Denny Hastert must resign for doing nothing about Foley
*  Foley drops out of re-election campaign
*  What the heck was Mark Foley thinking?