There have been a number of views (some of which may be duplicates) but no replies not even the Jobian copout that as mortals we are not able to second guess the mind of God. I say this is a copout because when any religion is faced with a question it cannot answer it tends to throw this out as its final answer, The problem is that while faith requires faith, most religions agree that faith and reason are not at odds. The Church for example provides rationales for its dogmas ranging from humane vitae, to the infallible doctrines dealing with Mary, to Galileo’s excommunication, to it defense of slavery, to its claim that Vatican II‘s revisions were evolutionary rather than revolutionary, to its prohibition against women priests., even if some of these rationales are not accepted by others, But in the sex abuse scandal it has no rationales, not even one which resembles Pope John II’s apologies where he blamed members of the Church rather than the Church itself for past misdeeds. My conclusion therefore is that I have struck a nerve, that my reasoning is correct and that it demonstrates that the Catholic Faith is based on a house of cards built on quicksand,

What has made this scandal so different from similar scandals affecting the boy scouts and other secular or religious institutions (where the percentage of abusers is about the same) is that none of them claim a special relationship to God and that parents trusted priests to care for their children and children trusted the priests who cared for them because they assumed that God had made the priests impeccable in their dealings with children, even as they recognized that priests being mortals were afflicted by other sins