The Roman Catholic priesthood presents itself as the very embodiment of Christ’s authority on earth—yet behind that sacred mystique lies a staggering global cover-up, with U.S. dioceses alone concealing thousands of child victims and predator priests across decades, all under a Vatican-imposed code of secrecy enforced by the penalty of excommunication since 1962. The question every Catholic must now confront isn’t merely about “bad apples” but about an institution whose very structure—a celibate, all-male hierarchy claiming an untransferable divine priesthood that Scripture never grants—was engineered to protect itself at the expense of the vulnerable.

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