jesus molly 
Where's the justice? This goes on and, as I said on another thread, we have yet to hear about what went on in Africa, Asia and Latin America where some of these child rapists were sent by the Vatican. And then there's the whole issue of all the other abuse, the beatings, the psychological torture, the non-sexual cruelty that has ruined people lives.
Chipmonkey: sorry, I think your friends (and some of mine too) are just wrong and selfish if they think that their right to this:
'I also think the tradition of confession is something a lot of people find comforting and get a sense of being unburdened. Also the other stuff, lighting candles for special intentions, the smell of incense, I really think the catholic church is unique in many ways and not all that easy to replace with another church.'
is more important than standing up to these people. FFS the smell of incense is NOT important, not as important as sending a message to these people. And as for confession: go to a friend or a counsellor if you need to be unburdened. I went to confession as a child. I remember being told I must have sinned and sitting outside the confessional and desperately trying to make myself, at the age of 10, or 12 or whatever, think of the bad things I had done. That is not a good tradition. It is damaging. But more important, seeking confession through a representative of a church which has done these things and which tells gay people they are evil! How could they? The man who heard my confession when I was at school was later found out to be a child rapist. The nun who told me I must have sinned used to hit us children at school. The priests who hear confession now may not be, but they still represent an institution full of defenders of unspeakable crimes. The church has not become liberal since Vatican II, it's gone the other way, so hanging on for a 'liberal pope' is crazy and the worst kind of justification. Where's the precedent? When has the church been liberalised? Vatican II was unique. What evidence is there of this impending liberalism? There's none, face it. It seems in fact that the current pope has decided that he will uphold all the most conservative values even though it means the church will shrink. He would rather have a smaller church than one which rejects the core values which most decent people do not agree with. He's offering your friends nothing.
On another issue, the fact that Northern Irish women have to go to the 'mainland' for an abortion is wrong, but this doesn't make the situation in the Republic any less wrong. Abortion is illegal in NI because of a combined effort of the Presbyterians and the Catholics. They don't come together on many issues, certainly not on integrated schools, but they will for this. Of course it's very wrong but we are now talking about the pope and the Catholic church. This is why no one is talking about the Presbyterians, or Muslims, or Jews or whatever right now obviously. But try a thread on the abortion in NI issue and see if you don't get people being just as critical of the Presbyterians there.
I have friends like yours. One tells me proudly that his parish priest is gay and everyone knows it and is fine with it in the parish. This man was divorced and has remarried a devout catholic. Their lovely church wouldn't marry them, doesn't recognise their children and condemns homosexuality, but off they go to church every week. The loyalty of people like this is to a church that doesn't exist: the only way they can stay in is to pretend that it's something else, wants to be something else, will be something else. But it won't. It is what it is: at least the pope has never pretended otherwise.