Get your money for nothing...

I see that suing the Catholic Church has become a billion-dollar industry.

Now, I don't want to be unsympathetic toward people who were molested as children, but does anybody really believe that (A) all of these 11,500 people really were severely abused by priests, and (B) that each one needs that much money for it? After all, if the statistics are right, one in four women and one in ten men was molested as a minor. The vast majority of them go on to live mostly normal lives. It's tragic, but not usually the end of the world.

Then, too, in the majority of these cases, the alleged victims have simply been paid off by the Church. No evidence has had to be brought. All that's necessary is that the allegations not be blatantly disprovable. In our diocese, we had an accusation leveled at a priest by a man who claimed to have been molested repeatedly by a priest in the 60s. A little investigation revealed that the very elderly priest had been living with his sister at the time in a state of senile dementia. Naturally, by the time his miraculous recovery was revealed, he was long dead. As are a great many of the accused, which makes them unable to defend themselves. Who's the victim there?

I guess the lesson we should take away from this is that if you're going to be molested, make sure it's not by somebody with no assets. If you play your cards (or cardinals) right, you could retire on the proceeds. The Church has become the new 401(k) plan.