text: Again, I agree (more or less). But when we're dealing with cases of clergy abuse, it's very important to distinguish between "legal" authority and "canonical" or "moral" authority. One of the reasons this problem happened in the first place was that bishops blurred the lines between those various types of authority.
  
  I just want to approach this from a position of fairness and common sense. If we criticize the Church for maintaining a relationship with pedophile priests before they're convicted, then it's unreasonable to expect them to maintain a relationship after those priests are released. 
  
  Once a clergy-abuser is in the criminal justice system, then it becomes the state's job -- not the Church's -- to protect society from that person. If what the state is doing isn't adequate, that's not the fault of the Church.