Morals/ethics of priests and bishops
            QUESTION from Frank on May 14, 2004

Dear Br. Ignatius: Thank you for your kind replies in the past. You helped me through a disastrous situation at the time where my wife had been seduced by a priest and a deacon (2 Q&A's in 2003 in the forums). We are still hanging in there, although living apart still for now. But the whatever insight I had gained from you and other decent sources helped me to stay calm enough to keep extending forgiveness and hope that a true reconciliation is possible someday, but more importantly, the rest of our family, especially our sons, have been able to mature to get to adulthood and on with their lives without this affecting them, and my wife's mother has been able to recover from a grave illness without even having to deal with the knowledge of the whole situation. I praise God for the progress and healing in other affected peoples' lives, and to a great extent, even in my own life, although my wife has still been drinking heavily and making excuses. I've learned not to push her closer to her abusers by saying too much to her. In talking to people in our local diocese, I have been advised by most priests and people connected with the diocese to approach the bishop through our chancellor, who has the reputation as a decent man. A number of them have indicated that the bishop has been an activist at covering up sins of the past for priests accused of child abuse, for over 30 years (there are some documents being used in lawsuits to support this), and indeed his statements to the press indicate a defensiveness or a naivete that is astonishing, including the statement that