James,

The film Spotlight has recently become available for streaming on Netflix, and I watched it again yesterday. As I hope very many people will do.

Am I wrong is suggesting that the church is attacking not only it's own priests and employees, but certainly thousands of innocent children (grown into adults) that were introduced into a lifestyle by those priests that they may not have discovered on their own? (NOT to suggest anything other than the power priests had over the innocent was something most of us will never be exposed to, most often for purposes of good, but too often simply for purposes of selfish control and sexual gratification. The number of suicides is the reason I suggest their lives were altered by the priests, not something "bad" about homosexuality, but the unbearable guilt. Assaults on children of either gender are both horrific. I know I've said that poorly, and I apologize. Maybe the following lines from the film will help express what I mean to say):

"But people need the church more than ever right now."

"The Cardinal, he may not be perfect. But we can't afford to throw out all the good he's doing over a few bad apples."

All I'm trying (and failing horribly) to say is that I wish the church had expressed 1% of the interest and concern over protecting the innocent as they did over protecting the guilty. And if they don't start now, they may wish they had.

And it seems (to me) that Jesus has gotten just as lost in this story as in the story of the evangelical support of Trump, if not more. (At least the evangelicals sincerely wish for the end of time, however twisted. The Catholic church just wants to not be stopped in their efforts to harm the innocent and protect the guilty. Regrettably, I’ve having trouble separating these related issues of child abuse and cruelty toward the LBGTQ+ community.)