[Christien]

I couldnt' disagree more that this is just anti-catholicism. There's a real problem there, and the church knows it. It's a catholic problem, not a christian problem. Percentage-wise, yes, catholic priests ARE worse than school teachers. Full stop.

We don't see kids in the school system getting sexually abused at the rate we do within the clergy, or even with other Christian sects which permit their spiritual leaders to marry and have sex. Putting vulnerable kids together with people forced to live an unnatural lifestyle of celibacy and you're just begging for problems. Teachers on the other hand are allowed to marry and have sex - normal. Sure, there's abuse within the school system, but it's nowhere near as rampant as it is within the church. Furthermore, when it's discovered within the school system, the offender is very quickly turned over to the police and is dealt with properly. Within the catholic church there is a systematic method of dealing with sexual offenders, whereby they're moved and hidden, and very frequently put in a position where they're able (and do) re-offend. I'm not just guessing or surmising here - I've read the documents that deal with this (my father is a lawyer and represented plaintiffs against the local diocese (and won, handily).