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"With the latest settlements, the number of people alleging abuse now stands at nearly 2,500"
So every Catholic church in major cities has thousands of sexual abuse victims? Did they just move the priests around and let them teach the other priests how to molest kids? How many centuries has the Catholic Church been molesting kids for?
So the answers to those questions are gonna be pretty bleak, just to warn you before I try to answer them with what I've found.
To start, google is too crippled for me to find your first question. But if you pick a city and search the numbers are pretty horrifying.
Yes, they move the priests around. It's known as priest shuffling. via wikipedia
Much like you, I was curious as to how long this has been going on. From what I could find, the church has been called out for molesting kids and covering it up since at least as early as 1049. They've most likely been doing this for much longer obviously, but as far as being directly called out on it and that being documented, it's been nearly 1000 years.
"Peter Damian (1007-1072) wrote to Pope Leo IX (1048-1054) about the cancer of sexual abuse that was spreading through the church: boys and adolescents were being forced and seduced into performing acts of sodomy by priests and bishops; there were problems with sexual harassment among higher clergy; and many members of the clergy were keeping concubines." via: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/534/article/11th-century-scandal
Peter Damian also wrote the Liber Gomorrhianus circa AD 1050-1051. From wikipedia:
"He was especially indignant about priests having sexual relationships with adolescent boys. He singles out superiors who, due to excessive and misplaced piety, have been lax in their duty to uphold church discipline. He opposes the ordination of those who engage in homosexual sex and wants those already ordained dismissed from Holy Orders. Those who misuse the sacraments to defile boys are treated with particular contempt."
One of the teachers at my high school was a Catholic priest. He had been accused of molesting a young boy when he was in a parish so the bishop, in his wisdom, moved him to an all boys boarding school.
He was later found guilty of molesting the original boy and the parish, as well as a boy at my school. From what I know now, he was definitely grooming one of my classmates, so there were probably many more victims.
He was given 3 years probation, and died a year or two ago, more than 40 years since I had him as a teacher.
I honestly don't get why people are still shocked when this happens.
Time and time again the church has become a haven for predators to hide, be protected and have blind trust access to victims.
People blindly believe it's never their priest.
Im not saying its not horrifying to find out that someone you think is a good person turns out to in fact be terrible, but all members of churches should have their guard up around their children and show some fucking critical thinking for once.