are there not other us cases? german, swiss, italian, irish and presumably others bubbling under? it appears to me that the pope has had a couple of bites of the cherry on this (with his letter to the catholics and his speech to the bishops) and rather than killing the issue as could relatively easily have been done, he's allowed enough scope for misunderstanding. i'm not vatican or pope bashing btw, just curious about the issue. i'm also curious about the medical treatments administered in the cases of conviction: does this included chemical castration for instance? and confession for the ordinary catholic, i think i'm aware of the process, but not what it means to someone as such - i'd be grateful if you'd explain from your point of view.