[FireFly]

I'm going to wade in here... although I feel like I may indeed get piled on for my POV as a Christian. I am also a victim of child abuse.

Cheese; one of your points here was that parents bring their children into this type of situation. Statistics show that a very large proportion of child abuse is perpetrated by persons close to the family, in a position of trust within the family. I was abused by my uncle. My sister-in-law was abused by her father's friend. Parents don't expect to bring their children into these situations. If my parents never took me to church, I still would've been abused. It's not like parents think to themselves, "hey, I know a place that'll bring a good chance of abuse to my kids," and take them to church. It doesn't happen like that. Anyone in close contact with your family could be perpetrating this type of thing. You just never know.

Part of the reason it is so high profile and publicized is because it is a major organization. Every day abuses do not get publicized. Your buddy diddling your other buddy's daughter is more likely to result in a broken face than publicity. I'm not saying the Church isn't at fault here... I have no great love for the Catholic Church and think their ways are greatly outdated and have some impact on creating these monsters. So yes, it should be publicized that these things are happening; perhaps that will encourage the Church to change. However, you need to ask yourself if it's public because it happens more in the Church, or if it's public because it's the Church.

Frankly, as a child, if my abuse had been public, it would have been devastating. I can understand part of the reason the Church wants to keep this under wraps. For the kids. I'm not saying that's the sole reason, or even a large reason, I'm saying as an abused child, I would have (and did) appreciate having the sitation dealt with privately.

Sure, some of it is a cover up. However, when a person comes to the Church higher ups and says so and so abused my child, do you think they want everyone to know? It's possible that it's 'covered up' because ALL partys want that. As long as it's dealt with, keep it quiet to avoid additional pain on the child, the child's family and the church.

Again, so long as it's dealt with.

For me, having my uncle's face busted was enough. Maybe that's not enough for others.

I guess my point is that it's likely not all of the 'cover ups' are for the benefit of the Church. In addition, cover ups happen outside of the church ALL THE TIME. Look around you when you go for a walk... It's likely 1 in 20 of the men you see have some perversion... if not more. Heck, some of the people reading this likely need help. They've thought sexually about some little girl they know personally and perhaps have even planned how to get them alone. Maybe even they have molested children.

Most 'private' cases are covered up, so it's easy to get away with.