Rockbird, I'm in the same boat as you.
Bernadetteoflourdes, your characterisation of the priest you have the misfortune to be dealing with is sadly very true to life. I can't for the life of me understand how people who accept or wish for the kind of adulation that a lot of priests receive(d) were /are accepted into seminaries for training. I would like to see what kind of psychological types/ personality profiles were considered acceptable in times past (maybe even now) as candidates for priesthood. Well done for standing up to your local oaf though!
KathyJelly: what you're saying is that gay men are paedophiles. Please think about this carefully.
Tinnitus, wrt infallibility; it only applies on matters of doctrine, i.e. the core teachings of the church. The pope can't declare infallibly that it's a perfectly beautiful day if it's 2 degrees and raining cats and dogs outside. Catholics do not believe the pope has dominion over all creation, etc., or that he is the king of kings. Also, "Herr" is not an appropriate title to use wrt a priest. (I know you can probably think of a few more appropriate ones )
This Times article is a good account of Paul Marcinkus' life and career. The only quibble I have is with the detail about Cicero, Illinois, the place where he grew up. Cicero is a suburb of Chicago, firmly in the metropolitan area, but completely separate administratively. Cicero township was Al Capone's bailiwick during the Depression and Prohibition era. It was then, and remains now, notorious as a Mob-controlled town. Marcinkus was never an 'Archbishop of Chicago' -- he was a titular Archbishop in the Vatican, and when the Banco Ambrosiano scandal took him down, he returned to the archdiocese of Chicago as a Pastor (parish priest) with no larger role. He was a shady character, and he grew up in a very corrupt town. There's a mindset that accompanies growing up in the circumstances of his youth that is very noticeable, especially in politics, in the whole Chicago area. Not necessarily the RC Church in Chicago, where priests tend to be far better educated and have a different attitude to laity than a lot of Irish priests.
I think the main problem of the Catholic Church wrt the rape of children is the attitude that it is primarily a matter of conscience and sin, as opposed to being a crime. Hence some of the inability to see the need to turn criminals in the ranks over to the relevant civil authorities. It's an attitude that needs a 100% change, because it fundamentally says that the Church in its personnel and as an institution is above or beyond the civil law of any given country. It has got away with this attitude partly because this attitude has been accepted by citizens of certain countries (thinking of Ireland here) and partly because child rape was historically not taken very seriously by law enforcement authorities (US, and other countries not majority Catholic) -- a perfect storm for paedophiles. The other factor in protecting paedophiles from the civil law of the countries where abuse took /takes place is institutional loyalty by very misguided and weak people who suffered from a total misapprehension of what constitutes real morality.