Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests has A Centuries Old History in the Church

I remain dumbfounded by the number of Catholics who continue to either stick their heads in the sand to avoid dealing with the rampant sexual abuse scandal and/or who fall for the disingenuous lies and excuses floated by the Church hierarchy - e.g., that the abuse problem is due to liberalization brought in under Vatican II or because of the secularization of society. Indeed, a new poll shows that a majority of Catholics believe that Papa Ratzi should remain in office as Pope. Apparently, he most be caught on video raping an altar boy himself before the sheeple accept the reality that the leadership at the Vatican is a toxic cesspool. Alex Wilhelm has an informative piece at Huffington Post that reveals just how untrue the myth is that abuse is a recent phenomenon. Here are some highlights:
*
[I]n the last 50 years some 30,000 people in 25 countries have reported abuse committed by the Church's many workers. Considering that rape is the most under-reported of violent crimes (only one-third of victims report), this statistic is nothing less than horrifying. Tragically, the odds are quite high that there are children in the world this very day who will be sexually abused by their priest.
*
Among the multitudes of difficult questions this raises, one that begs to be answered is whether or not child abuse is a new problem in the Church. . . . As this essay discusses below, it does not appear that there was a time that the Church was effective at preventing child abuse -- this is a problem that reaches back to the earliest days of its formation and practice.
*
The current Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, has stated (in a letter to the much-abused citizenry of Ireland), that part of the blame for the abuse scandals and their handling by the Church of Ireland was due to "rapid transformation and secularization of Irish society." This statement is not just morally offensive, it is logically fallacious. It appears the Pope was trying to place at least partial blame onto the modern world for the crimes, thus deflecting the Holy See from full responsibility.
*
On this point, the Pope is clearly wrong. Religious documents dating back to before the writing of the New Testament highlight problems inside the Church regarding sexual rule-breaking and the abuse of boys. The Church has hung itself with its own paper trail and history.
*
As inferred above from the Didache, child abuse was a problem during the first days of Christendom. In the year 309 there were new punishments created to enforce previous edicts. . . . there was no secular reporting or punishment required. The issue was seen in spiritual terms and treated as such. It is doubtful that the children who were molested found that to be a satisfactory reprisal. Further, and obviously, the punishment failed to mitigate the problem.
*
Saint Peter Damian . . . was so outraged by the Men of the Cloth that in the year 1049 he wrote the "Book of Gomorrah," and dedicated it to the Pope. In the tome, he railed against the Priesthood of his time, specifically condemning sodomy against both children and young priests. . . . By the year 1600, a familiar system had been developed: the quiet moving or promoting of priests out of locations where they had been abusing the local children. This system continues to this very day.
*
Clearly, two patterns emerge: the Catholic Church has been struggling with the abuse of minors (usually boys) by members of the Priesthood since the earliest days of the church; . . . The Catholic Church is in trouble today, but they should be prosecuted in the public mind for millennia of wrongdoings against children. It is a long scandal, a heartbreaking history of abuse. "There is nothing new under the sun," the Bible tells us, and the Catholic Church has confirmed it.
*
Again, I ask myself how I allowed such a corrupt and morally bankrupt institution to warp my life for so many years. I left the Church and I am afraid that until many other Catholics do the same, nothing will really change. Obviously, closing one's eyes to the sick reality of the situation will not bring about the changes so desperately needed. In the meantime, how many more children and youths will be violated?