I read through some of the report and found it very, very disturbing. The sexual abuse was only a part of it - the utter harshness and bleakness of these childrens' existence is heartbreaking and I don't understand how anyone, most especially people who professed to be dedicating themselves to God, could have tolerated or participated in such outrages.

I have a theory about why child abuse became a problem in the Catholic church. I wonder if people who had socially unacceptable feelings (homosexuality, pedophilia, etc.) about their sexuality might have joined a celibate order thinking that it might solve their problem. They may have felt that if they could indeed lead a celibate lifestyle, the feelings and urges they experienced might go away. Even now, it's probably hard to go find help if you are having sexual feelings towards children - years ago there would have been no place to turn. Homosexuality was taboo. If you opened up about it to anyone you might have been afraid of being labled a degenerate or worse. So perhaps some thought the solution - the 'cure' would be total abstinence. Of course complete repression of such feelings rarely works and when the feelings do come to the surface things may be really twisted. Whatever the case, it's a real tragedy for all concerned.