I guess the whole Gerard thing has exploded on the St. Blog's scene. I personally am not thrilled with Gerard's response and take on the issue. It seems a touch Clintonesque, too much word parsing and technicality speech. The nature of things is that it is very difficult to live these things down, this is why contemplating the effects of sin before hand is most important because you understand that there's no way out.

I'm not seeing an overwhelming resevoir of support for Gerard and I think because of some of "little nastiness" in many of his postings. I'm just amazed that for someone who had skeletons he was very outspoken and abrasive in doing so.

I, like many, feel that there was something inappropriate about the Cardinal doing what he did. It still boils down to the fact that the Bishops, are absolving themselves of responsibility for many of these problems. I think he should have released the list, but with prior warning to those included and with his letter of resignation for concealing this information and allowing these men to continue in ministry when many shouldn't have.

The other thing is that I think many Catholics missunderstand the nature of forgiveness and of the world. If I poison a stream, it is poisoned. The stream owner may forgive me, that is, no longer hold this against me, but still, Pandora's box is open. And the nature of things is that you have to relive it over and over again. This is where the sinner asks for courage to over and over accept responsibility and possibly the anger of others. It is so hard to run away from our pasts, so we just have to face them. This is why Heaven is so appealing, because then it'll all be over. But as long as we are here, you can't easily flee your past, so try to face it and don't blame others when it resurfaces.