Pedophilia. It isn't about celibacy or religious preference. It's about opportunity.

My family comes from a small town in east central Minnesota. I remember the hushed conversations about the protestant minister who was accused of sexually abusing boys in his ministry. One of my siblings barely escaped the abuse, though that sibling's friend did not. The minister -- and his wife and children -- quietly left town. Who knows where he is now, whose care has been entrusted to him?

One of my own children was sexually abused while in a Catholic school, not by a priest but by a lay teacher.

We have been a trusting innocent society. The person we expect to be our moral or intellectual guide should not be the one who defiles the innocence of our children. Is there a safe place?

I hear the rumble of hate toward the Catholic church and its neglect of the issue of sexual abuse. Some of those who rail have been waiting for the church to fall hard on its face.

Governor Ventura, I'm not impressed. You only spoke the obvious.

It isn't just the Catholic church, it is any church, indeed, any place where a pedophile has the opportunity to have close contact with children, to gain the confidence of, or, coerce a child into thinking they must cooperate because they have been entrusted to his or her care. The child may think -- if mom and dad trust this person, then what they're doing must be something they know about, or that they must submit to it.

I doubt that pedophilia is a symptom of celibacy but marriage could be a disguise for it -- but the bottom line is, wherever there are children is where the pedophile will be found.

An alarming statistic is that more than 95 percent of pedophiles cannot be reformed. Maybe none can be. Would you trust someone who had sexually abused a child? Should you trust them with your children?

Would a bank employ a paroled bank robber?

The answer is, no on both counts. There is no such thing as a reformed pedophile.

Sexual predators need to be made visible by authorities and they need to be punished for their crimes. And to go a step further, stipulations of their parole and release should be in effect until their death -- absolutely no contact with children.

Schools, churches and religious organizations must scrutinize their ministers and employees because they hold the innocence of youth in their hands.