My replies are marked “BOB” below:

Elizabeth wrote:

I haven’t read any of the twin studies, but I religiously read every reunited-twins article I could get my hands on back in the ’80s. In some of these, it turned out that the boys’ girlfriends had the same first names! And that was just one item in a _long_ list of identical facts in their lives.

BOB: I pointed out that I saw those studies come to an abrupt end. Phil Donahue was interviewing a man who had reunited identical TRIPLETS separated at birth. They had been adopted into Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish families respectively and their environment was different in every way.

BOB: So the man who brought them together was reciting how exactly alike they were in every way despite their upbringing, and Donahue said, “So that proves heredity is more important than environment?”

BOB: The man reacted as if he had been slapped in the face. He knew that the next thing Donahue would do was to compare him to anaziwhowantedtokillsixmillionjews. HITLER was for heredity!

BOB: Those studies ended that day.

Action is being taken to correct the homosexuality problem.

BOB: They SAY it is being straightened out. Given the Church’s inaction on molestation before, I wouldn’t believe it.

BOB: There is an old saying: “By their works ye shall know them.”

Some Catholic dioceses are better than others about that: dioceses where the selection criteria are rigorous in order to screen out the homosexuals are the dioceses with _no_ recruitment problems. And bishops are being informed by both Rome and their laity and clergy that they’d better pay more attention to their priestly role than to their administrative functions.

There are some catches in the Protestant denominations, from Baptists to Episcopalians. Funny thing – there’s a flurry when they catch the malefactor, then the story, if it surfaces afterwards, almost always turns up as an itty-bitty item on page 27A (or the TV and radio equivalent).

People don’t understand that _anyone_ who works with children can be an abuser. There are some potentially _huge_ scandals in the public schools here in the U.S. And a lot of superintendents are used to playing musical teaching positions with their rotten apples.

BOB: You know my stand on professors. I would jail any of those superintendents without parole for life, too.

BOB: But two wrongs don’t make a right. The Pope has set the precedent whereby those who cause boy-molesting are totally unpunished if they are of high rank.

BOB: I cannot imagine anything more blatantly immoral than that. This senile Pope makes the Borgias look good.