The current issue of U.S. Catholic includes and excellent piece by Robert J. McClory on the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Here are a few excerpts which I hope will interest you in reading the the article.

The priest sex abuse crisis is the U.S. Catholic Church’s Iraq War. The comparisons are hard to miss: the mounting list of casualties, the ever-increasing cost, the reluctance of leadership to admit mistakes, the ill-advised strategic moves, the obsession to conceal documents lest the truth come out, the loss of confidence by the public in the top decision-makers, the powerlessness of ordinary citizens to have their voice heard, and the growing conviction on the part of many that it will never end.

It was in the spring of 2003 when President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and under a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished,” announced, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Nine months later Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, held up two volumes on the history and proposed solution to the abuse crisis, and told reporters, “The terrible history recorded here is history.” He assured everyone that no stone had been left unturned to stop that scandal and that no known offenders were still at large.

But the fog of war has enshrouded both these campaigns. It has been five years since the bishops met in Dallas and agreed on a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the National Review Board to monitor the effort, and an office to assess progress. Still the battle occupies the news almost daily with new revelations and accusations, new court filings, new charges of deceit and cover-up, new TV specials. Catholics look on with a wide spectrum of attitudes including outrage, patient endurance, despair, and even confident hope.

How far have we come after five years?

...

As in any war, blame for the crisis is not limited to the obvious sources but gets spread all over the landscape. The media have been frequent targets in the abuse crisis—accused of sensationalizing the crimes, harassing priests and bishops, and failing to mention that most priests are doing wonderful work... A tempting target are the lawyers representing victims. Amounts of up to 30 or 40 percent of large compensation payments to victims have been awarded to these lawyers, who are then accused of greed and conspiring with advocacy groups to enrich themselves. The accusations have grown in frequency and indignation as the sums paid out by the church have increased. In a 2005 speech Thomas Doyle called the anti-lawyer attack “baseless and moronic.”

“It was the lawyers who essentially did what the clergy should have been doing,” he said. “They believed the victims, they supported them, they allowed them to vent, they gave them the beginnings of comfort and assurance that there was nothing wrong with them, that [the abuse] was real, that it did happen..."