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	Private Line: Clerical Can of Worms! By Jeannette Layne-Clark The Nation Newspaper [Barbados] June 17, 2007 http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/322339379365564.php Sex and the Clergy. That's a sizzling topic that has been popping in and out of the news from time to time. Now, it's making headlines again. Just when memories were beginning to blur over the scandals erupting in the Catholic Church during the last decade, another clergyman has sidled into the international spotlight. Jeremiah McGrath, an Irish priest from County Kerry, has been sentenced to five years in prison for aiding the rape of a 12-year-old girl from Liverpool in 2005. The 63-year-old, who reportedly gave thousands of pounds to one William Adams "to help groom the girl for sex", was found guilty of facilitating the abuse. A news story emanating from The Guardian (the British one, that is) states that McGrath first met Adams, 38, in a hostel for the homeless in Dublin in 1988. By the time the two men developed a sexual relationship, Adams had admitted to the priest that he'd already been to jail for abusing a young girl. However, the priest who, according to The Guardian, "wore his clerical collar throughout the trial, insisted he had no idea that Adams was abusing the girl and claimed the cash transfers were linked to his gambling habit". Really?!! Thank goodness he'll be spending the next five years in an appropriate place! My reaction was similar when I read about the trial back in 1998 of another Irish priest – Oliver O'Grady. Readers may recall that he was exposed as a prolific sex abuser, having, on his own admission, molested twenty-something children between the ages of four months and 12 years! Seven years' imprisonment at a California state prison should've been 70, in his case! O'Grady was one of many priests who had been moved from parish to parish in the Church's attempt to avoid scandal. On that score, the name that comes to mind is Cardinal Bernard Law who, after much resistance, finally resigned as Archbishop of Boston almost five years ago. The goodly cardinal had been continually shuffling priests from diocese to diocese – priests known to have traded drugs for sex, sexually abused children, fathered children and abused women! Among other infamous clergymen "discovered" in relatively recent years, defrocked priest John Geoghan is now serving nine to ten years in prison for his nefarious deeds. And the Rev. Ronald H. Paquin's perpetual molestation of young boys eventually earned him 12 to 15 years behind bars. And who can forget the exposé on the Rev. Paul Shanley who, through his much-respected Boston "street ministry", took advantage of boys seeking his guidance? Thankfully, he is now awaiting trial on rape charges. What is staggering is the sum of money reportedly spent by the Church to put a lid on this ever-present can of worms – a billion dollars (US) in America alone! No wonder Patrick Wall, former Benedictine monk now turned international sleuth, insists that it's not the Da Vinci Code that is the real conspiracy in the Catholic Church, but the cover-up of paedophile priests! Sadly, the complaints against the Catholic clergy never stop. According to The Guardian, in 2004 more than 1 000 new allegations were lodged against priests, with 750 cases currently pending in California. The scandals have been mushrooming far beyond the United States. Scores of delinquent priests notwithstanding, the higher echelons of the Catholic hierarchy have also been in focus. In fact, many bishops (from countries including Austria, Argentina, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Canada, Wales and Ireland) have resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. As revelations continue to emerge, the topic remains alive. That it has, however, hardly ever attracted more than a whisper in Barbados remains a mystery.
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