Catholic Church scandals: I had thought that these scandals were fairly unique to the US, but according to a Washington Post article, that's not true. "In both the old Catholic heartlands of Europe and the new frontiers of the developing world, the church has been damaged by the activities of sexual predators within its ranks." It's only the US scandals that have received attention from the Vatican. I don't know if I agree with O'Toole that the Vatican is only interested in the fallout in America because of worry that the American catholics might split due to the American reforming personality - Christian reformations have come out of Europe, too. Rather, there could be a very simple explanation if you follow the money: I bet the revenues from the American catholic church are enormous.

To be clear, I never thought that sexually predatory priests were unique to the US -- I thought it was only the media coverage that was unique to the US. In some sense I'm glad that other countries are at least as open about these incidents, even if they don't get visits from the Pope as a result.