[goodwithagun]

I think statistically they are now more likely to be abused than in a Catholic Church. Mrs. Don-o has the stats on that.

[ckilmer]

You might be right. I’m not aware of those stats. Generally the catholic church has the same problem of declining membership that the mainline protestant churches have. My church has plenty of refugees from mainline protestant churches as well—including me.

[ckilmer]

You might be right. I’m not aware of those stats. Generally the catholic church has the same problem of declining membership that the mainline protestant churches have. My church has plenty of refugees from mainline protestant churches as well. The mainline protestant churches don’ care much for men either.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The total amount of pedophilia + ephebophilia in the Catholic Clergy amounts to less than 2 percent — comparable to the rate among married men. This was the research finding of Pennsylvania State University Prof. Philip Jenkins, eminent religion and history scholar, and a non-Catholic, who’s studied the church’s abuse problems for 20 years.

Jenkins said there has been no formal study comparing denominations for rates of child abuse. However, insurers have been assessing the risks since they began offering riders on liability policies in the 1980s. Two of the largest insurers report no higher risks in covering Catholic churches than Protestant denominations (Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests).

The idea that there's some nutty "doctrine" among priests that results in sexual abuse, has been debunked time and time again.

I would say, though, that if fathers or mothers have some founded cause to think their child might be at risk of being abused, they should get them out of that situation pronto, without waiting for some formal indictment to surface.

And that goes not just for churches --- any church --- but also Parks & Rec programs, sports teams, youth groups, mentoring arrangements, hiking/outdoors organizations, medical or counseling settings, summer camp, PUBLIC or PRIVATE SCHOOL, or any other organization that attracts youth and therefore is attractive to perverters of youth.

All parents should take this seriously.