Pedophilic Priests

I was just listening to Bush’s press conference, and when asked about the problem of pedophilia in the Church (Lord only knows why the reporter thought that this was an issue for the President), he replied something to the effect that he knew many in the Church hierarchy, and that they were men of integrity.

I haven’t said much on this issue, but I do have a couple of thoughts. First, I find it curious that many of the same people who claim that being gay is “unnatural” and sinful because it can’t result in progeny simultaneously require that their priesthood be celibate, which to my mind is equally, and perhaps even more, “unnatural”…

Second, I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that anyone in the Church hierarchy who helped keep such crimes quiet, and simply transferred transgressors to other parishes to sin again, were aiding and abetting felonies, and engaging in a criminal conspiracy. Is there any reason (legal reason, that is, not political) that they shouldn’t be so charged?