Ten To Twenty-Thousand Cases Of Child Molestation By The Catholic Church

It doesn't get better for the Catholic Church.
Triggered by allegations of abuse at a Catholic school in the Netherlands, which prompted other alleged victims to come forward. an independent commission has concluded that Catholic officials failed to tackle or, at times, even acknowledge, the sexual abuse of children at schools, seminaries and orphanages. 
The commission, which began its work in 2010, studying 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic institutions, has identified 800 alleged pedophile priests and other perpetrators, just over 100 of whom are still alive. 
Eight-hundred pedophiles.
And the report estimates that between ten-and twenty-thousand children were abused by priests and others while in the care of Catholic institutions between 1945 and 1981, when the number of Church-run homes dropped. Since 1981, several thousand more children suffered at the hands of priests and others working for the Church. Most cases involved what is being called "mild to moderate" abuse, such as touching, but the report estimated there were "several thousand" instances of rape.
Thousands of children raped.
And of course, as we all know by know, the commission learned that the "problem of sexual abuse was known in the orders and dioceses of the Dutch Catholic Church, but the appropriate actions were not undertaken." 
Bert Smeets, an abuse victim, said the report did not go far enough in detailing precisely exactly what happened: "What was happening was sexual abuse, violence, spiritual terror, and that should have been investigated. It remains vague. All sorts of things happened but nobody knows exactly what or by whom. This way, they avoid responsibility."
Last month the Dutch branch of the Catholic Church set up a sliding compensation system based on the severity of abuse suffered, offering compensation of between 5,000 and 100,000 euros. Heavy petting apparently costs a few pennies, while rape is an upcharge. There was no financial price placed on the damage done to a child's psyche.
In response to the commission's finding, a group of Catholic bishops, muttered, "This episode fills us with shame and sorrow."
Yet not a word about what was done to children, and protected by the church, for nearly forty-some-odd years. 

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