From CNN last week:

The Archdiocese of Dublin and other Catholic Church authorities in Ireland covered up clerical child abuse until the mid-1990s, according to a government-commissioned report released Thursday.The Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation’s 720-page report said that it has “no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up” from January 1975 to May 2004, the time covered by the report.

The commission examined the histories of 46 priests, who were picked as a sample from 102 who had had complaints or suspicions of child abuse raised against them. Complaints from more than 320 children were leveled against the 46, the report said.

But it said that the number of children abused likely exceeded that.

“One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis during the currency of his ministry which lasted for over 25 years,” the report said.

I recently posted a debate over the Catholic Church’s influence in the world. Those arguing that its influence has been negative hung their case on the sexual abuse scandals. That this was their main argument annoyed some people, including readers of this blog. The frustration seemed to be that the “sex abuse” argument is too easy and overplayed. But reading things like the article above make me less sympathetic to this complaint.

The John Jay report found that, between 1950 and 2002, “the problem [sexual abuse] was indeed widespread and affected more than 95 percent of the dioceses and approximately 60 percent of religious communities [in the US].” So given the extent of the abuse and their cover-ups, this issue ought to plague the Catholic Church.

Other religions would be wise not to throw stones, however. In 2007, the Associated Press revealed that three major insurance companies for Protestant Churches in America say they typically receive 260 reports each year of minors being sexually abused by Protestant clergy, staff, or other church-related relationships.

And of the LDS Church, Mormon Matters blogger Jeff Breinholt wrote:

The LDS Church has a problem, as do the Jehovah’s Witnesses. … In fact, the Mormons and the Witnesses are suffering from a similar trajectory. They are bound to keep their lawyers very busy over the coming years. It will probably get darker before it is light again.

The LDS Church is [currently] a defendant in 10 cases, which have given rise to 15 written opinions. Most are outside of Utah.

I happen to know of a couple cases in Utah, though. Within the last year, an ex-Bishop in Harrisville and the seminary principal at Lone Peak High were convicted of improper sexual relations with minors.

Now, I don’t present this information as evidence of religion’s falsity. Because while these supposed “men of God” should be held to a higher ethical standard, I also understand that they are fallible human beings. Their actions are not necessarily attributable to or reflective of their faith. Nor do I mean to suggest that the issue of sexual abuse is unique to religion. Still, I find child molestation by religious leaders particularly upsetting.

By virtue of the respect and trust they enjoy from their communities, religious authorities have a level of access to children that other adults do not — access that increases the risk for abuse. And when abuse occurs by a religious leader, it hurts more than just the victim; it affects the entire community, whose trust the leader betrayed.

Another troubling aspect about sexual abuse in religion is that it’s not always treated by the church as a crime, but as a sin. Consequently, even when higher-up church officials are made aware of sexual abuse, it doesn’t get reported to the police. Instead, the offending religious leader is asked to repent and, as was sometimes the case in the Catholic Church, was simply moved to another congregation.

Certain religious sentiments make it easier to blame the victims, too. Consider our own culture. BYU police office Arnie Lemmon told the Deseret News that most Provo residents are religious and have a tendency to stigmatize discussion of sexual assault and sometimes to demonize the survivor. Lemmon also shared a letter he received from one rape victim, which read “I’m a perversion to the good saints of my church” and expressed her wish to be dead. This may help to explain why an estimated 90% of rapes go unreported in Provo.

As you can see, it’s hard enough for adults to report sexual abuse, especially in conservative and religious cultures. But it’s all the more difficult when the abuser is an admired religious leader and the victim a child.

So again, my worry is that some are quick to ignore church-related sexual abuse scandals as tired and anecdotal. In writing this post, I hope I’ve made a case that this issue deserves our sensitive attention. It’s a case that really shouldn’t have to be made.