Sexual Abuse in Social Context: Clergy and other (Secular) Professionals.

[Nishant Xavier]

Respectfully disagree, arewethereyet. Not questioning your experience, and if you did experience any child abusing Priests, then I am sorry. But my experience has been different: I must know about 100 Priests, along with dozens of Nuns, and I am very sure no statistically significant percentage of Priests or Nuns are abusers. I don't know a single one who is or was. I do know one Priest who was into drunkenness, yes; but thats a personal vice, not a crime. Some parishioners counselled him about it, which is good on their part, and he tried to stop. After that, I left that Parish, as I had to move around for work etc, so I don't know what happened. But clearly not a crime in any case.

Also, that's not how Repentance works in traditional Catholic understanding: its not just saying sorry. Thats why theres a Purgatory. Firstly one has to repent from a contrite heart and hate and detest the sin with all one's heart; and then seriously promise and really intend never to repeat it; that just to avoid Hell. Then, as early Church Canonical Disciplines show, 10 to 15 years of Penance would have to be undergone for one such grave sin. If not done in this life, like in a Penitentiary etc, then those years have to be fulfilled in Purgatory. More should be done to root it out and reduce the %age as far as possible, across all sections of society, but Catholic Teaching certainly isn't responsible.

Edited: