I guess, in all fairness, I should point out that Akenaton is right about one thing. As Wikipedia says:

Pedophilia or paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children.

Most of us use the term "sexual abuse of children," which refers to all children with whom sexual contact is illegal, but Jim and a few others incorrectly use the term paedophilia. We know what they mean and don't make an issue of it, but Akenaton wants to muddy the waters by spitting hairs and so he continually makes a big deal of it. And don't give me a hard time about my mixed metaphor - it's intentional.

The central fact is that a good number of priests, between 5 and 10 percent, had illegal sexual contact with children; and many dioceses were in a practice of covering up those crimes. I would suggest that for the most part, the coverups no longer take place. What we are arguing about, is a series of crimes that took place twenty or more years ago - and the more recent efforts to clean up the mess.

But that was then, and this is now. It is no longer advantageous to any bishop to cover up any crime of sex abuse - the cost is just too high, and too many eyes are watching. Steve Shaw says above:

It would be really good to see an assertive, open, zero-tolerance approach to abuse from the Church. That is what we haven't seen and that's the problem.

I think that for the most part, zero-tolerance is a reality in the Catholic Church. No priest who is a sex offender has any hope for support or sympathy from the leadership of the Catholic Church. Yes, there is a lot of cleanup left to do for those long-ago crimes, and dioceses will continue to attempt to protect themselves from claims they deem unreasonable. But for the most part, the deeds were done long ago, and reparations have been paid or are in the process of being paid. The Industrial Schools were all closed long ago, and the Magdalene Laundries are no more. And most people no longer go to church, because it is no longer socially required. People who go to church nowadays, go because they want to.

Yes, sex offenders will continue to be a problem in the Catholic Church and other institutions, but the churches and other institutions now know that they cannot protect sex offenders with impunity. Catholic bishops have to retire at the age of 75, so almost all of the bishops who did the coverups are retired or dead.

Harshness and abuse were once accepted practices in the education of children, but this sort of abuse is no longer tolerated by society.

-Joe-