The abuse goes gfar beyond sexual and in my opinion was as much an expression of power than of sexual perversion - read about the industial schools or the Magdalene laundries to get examples of largely non-sexual abuse

I've told this story before, but it merits re-telling
Traveller, Mary Delaney was one of the finest singers we met
Both she and her sister were blind from birth - their father managed to get treatment for Mary's sister
She was operated on and after te operation, when they removed the dressings, she found she had her sight back - it lasted for a short time but faded again into total blindness
When Mary's father told the hospital priest what had occurred he asked, "did you say, thanks be to god?
He replied that he had been too excited
"That's why she lost her sight again". the priest told him
When we met the father we found that guilt had driven him to the bottle and he had become a helpless drunk

As far as I am concerned, that goes far beyond abuse and was sheer sadism - a total misuse of religious authority
THat is what I was I meant when I referred to "the backing of a supreme being"
Jim Carroll