text: The previous generation of fragile priests is the current generation of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and other hierarchs.  Back through the generations, back through the centuries.  Fragile, err-prone, self-protecting, all-too-human, claiming always the keys of heaven, claiming infallible leadership through the Holy Spirit, claiming they stood in the place of Christ, claiming their decisions were sanctioned by God, clinging to an insistence the Church they command could never fall into error.
  
  It's no wonder some refuse to see the hierarchs' hands in this -- to acknowledge such grave failures and crimes raises far too many questions about the leadership and direction of the Church through the centuries.