Well, shoot, no wonder I have headaches all the time.
First off, I want to make it clear that I am neither a Catholic nor a Protestant, and the phrase “As far as I can tell” should be inferred to be in front of all my statements in this post.
I think that Protestants and Catholics are talking past each other here; they have a completely different idea about what it means to be a Catholic. To a Catholic such as Guinistasia, saying that she should leave the Church because some of the leadership has done bad things is like telling her that she shouldn’t speak to anyone in her family because her father did something wrong. Telling her she should find another church is, to her, telling her that she should change her beliefs. To a Protestant, however, saying that she should find another church means simply that she should find another place to celebrate her beliefs, not that she should actually change what her beliefs are. A Protestant who gets fed up with the Baptists and decides to try a Methodist church doesn’t consider himself to have “changed his mind” about any of the points of agreements he may have had with Baptists; he still has the same beliefs he always had, he just is sharing them with different people. Protestants are telling her to leave the church, and she thinks that they are telling her to leave the Church.
Guinistasia, I don’t think that you have any obligation to change your beliefs, but if you are financially supporting the RCC, I think that you do have a responsibility to pay attention to how that money is being used, and to stop donating if it is being used for immoral purposes.
I heartily concur. (yes, I know you’re relieved to hear that 
)
Since this latest scandal broke, when I’ve been listening to the discussions which stem from the declaration that “Something has to be done!”, someone always suggests that “if they’d just allow priests to marry, this wouldn’t happen”. (FCOL, I heard an interviewer on NPR ask a priest this - I thought public radio was supposed to be more intellectually gifted.)
My response, usually forcefully spoken to the TV/radio is, “So, when someone is unable to adhere to high standards and expectations, the only reasonable course of action is for everyone else to lower those same standards and expectations?!?” I mean, we’ve already instituted that mindset firmly in our culture, now we’re going to insist the Church do the same?
I’m a Lutheran, but my understanding of the priesthood is that they are to be examples of lives lived wholly devoted to God. And if one of them just can’t seem to be able to do that, we should pressure the church to just say, “Oh, all right, do what you want…”?
I have more than a few problems with Catholic doctrine, but I have always admired their steadfast devotion in exhorting their members to set aside their selfish secular desires and work hard to adhere to God’s higher purposes.
inform the authorities about possible abuse, or file civil suits?
It boggles the mind, considering how punitive our society is, in general, toward those who molest children (and rightly so).