On Yahoo! News there's an article from Reuters regarding the scandal in the Church. It starts off: "A Vatican-sanctioned journal has attacked the U.S. media for 'morbid' behavior in its coverage of a child sex scandal and denounced what it called anti-Catholic attitudes that portrayed priests as monsters." I believe this. I've more than once encountered certain Protestants who like to attack me for my beliefs, behaving in a very un-Christian way. And there are many Fundamentalist "Christians" who like to call the Church the "Whore of Babylon" (see: Hunting the Whore of Babylon). So, back to the Yahoo! article- the Vatican was talking about the excess coverage on the scandal. The media is focusing on the Roman Catholic Church when this is not a new story, nor does it occur in just the RCC. There are noted cases in many Protestant denominations, even with Jewish rabbis! In addition to the anti-Catholic feelings mentioned in the article, my take on this was that of a conspiracy, of sorts. The Roman Catholic Church is quite powerful in many regards. Hearing all these stories, knowing it wasn't unique to my religion or to just religion in general, I felt that all the press it was receiving was a diversion. I believe that the pro-Israel groups that have control over US mainstream media are partly responsible. These are attempts to divert attention from the atrocities Sharon's government is committing in Palestine. Did not the sex abuse scandals not make front page around the time when people all over were pointing out human rights abuses committed by the Israel Defense Force? And when the UN attempted to organize a fact-finding commission to see if a massacre had truly occurred in the Jenin refugee camp? It's all so suspicious. Whatever- the Church will prevail. And hopefully, we will one day be able to grow closer, if not fully unite, with our sister churches - the many Catholic and Orthodox religions throughout the world.