That is juggling with semantics Mike
The clergy has been abusing children, probably for centuries here in Ireland.
The church has utilised their authority "from a superior power base" to not only cover up the abuse, but to allow it to continue by passing on the abusers to other parishes, and when it has got out of hand they have moved on the offenders to African countries, where, apparently, abuse does not matter. The Catholic heirarchy are still using their "superior - (though now waning) power base" - in an attempt to hamper enquiries into the abuse.
If I had children starting school here I would have almost no alternative but to have them educated as Catholics unless I was lucky enough to enrol them in one of the tiny handful of 'Educate Together' schools, in which case they would have to travel 20 odd miles to the nearest - a small pre-fabricated building on the outskirts of our market town.
Not sure of the present situation but up to comparatively recently, if a Catholic wished to marry a non Catholic and retain his/her religion they would have to give an undertaking to have any children educated as Catholics (a wonderful film 'A Love divided' showing the effects this had on a family bassed on an actual event in the 1950s) - a form of brainwashing as far as I'm concerned - as the Jesuits said "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man".
Religious persecution has been a fact of life here in Ireland for centuries - (look up the 'soup schools' as far back as The Famine)
All of this, as far as I can see, fits comfortably within your definition of persecution - not killing, rape or imprisonment, but every bit as devatating to those affected.
It also illustrates the point I have been making throughout this thread (and which none of the critics of 'Christian Persecution' have even acknowledged, let alone answered) that most religions will persecute and abuse in the furtherence of their religion if they are in the position to do so
With equal respect - and I also sincerely mean that.
Jim Carroll