I don’t get the “1” thing.
There can be corrupt institutions, but 1 doesn’t mean squat.
There may be a problem in the Catholic church, or not, but “1”, or five, or 20 humans that are criminals or deviants in an organization of many thousands, is unavoidable.
In the parable about the wheat and the weeds, Jesus didn't seem to view the work of the Enemy as spoiling the whole crop. He also had a few things to say about judging others, didn't he?
When I worked in health care, I frequently had occasion to work with sex abuse victims (perps too sometimes). In my opinion, sexual exploitation of children (and adults too, by the way) is a societal problem, not a problem specific to any institution. At the moment, I can't think of any segment of society that's immune to the problem. Catholic bashing may help some folks feel superior, but it doesn't do much to make our society a safer place for kids.
That is, unless Jesus allowed one of the 12 disciples to frolic naked with little boys just because "there's always going to be one".......except he didn't allow that.
What did Jesus allow? He let one of his inner circle betray him. Although you may not agree with our perception, a lot of us Catholics view this type of priest as a Judas, not as an indictment on the Church or its heirarchy. That doesn't make us enablers of abuse.
Whether you want to admit it or not, it is the Church's problem and until there is no abuse it will continue being the whole church's problem.
Here I agree with you, although perhaps not with the meaning you intended. The Catholic Church and all people of faith and morals should be leading the way. Every time a clergy (of any faith) or a person who is expected to adhere to higher standards offends, it's an especially painful black eye. Not just on the institution the offender represents, but on society as a whole. And of course, the victim. The Church has been rightly criticized for its errors in protecting children and for enabling abusing clergy. In response, the Church has developed programs to protect minors and train staff/volunteers to watch for warning signs that potential abuse is a possibility. But it's not enough. The Church needs to be humble about its past, remain vigilant at present, and be forceful in its advocacy for children in our current society, which is a very dangerous place for kids.
We've become a culture that doesn't appreciate, respect, or defend our children. We have laws that permit their killing before birth. We have social movements pushing to permit legal killing after birth. We are no longer shocked when we read about a parent horrifically abusing or killing a child or step child. We're no longer surprised to hear about abuse happening at a school. Or just about any place you can imagine. Heck, even our government now claims the right to sterilize a minor without parental consent, a move that further enables certain types of offenders.
If you ask me, we should ALL be more vigilant and active. It's easy to look down our nose at whatever group has the latest perp in the news cycle. What's more difficult is to take specific action to change the culture that emboldens predation of our kids and encourages adults to objectify children and accord them less than full human dignity.
Stop and think about the messages our culture broadcasts every day. Children have become commodities that everyone's entitled to (think homosexual advocates). Kids are encouraged to become sexually active at ages even younger than the victim in this story (think Planned Parenthood). And they're encouraged to look outside the family for answers and advice on matters of sex. Just look at some of the hypersexualized messages being sent pictorially on some back-to-school ads.
IMHO, it isn't just the Church, but all of us should be trying to repair our culture, not just reclaim our institutions from those who would mistreat children. It's easy to cast stones, isn't it? It's harder to fight Planned Parenthood's infiltration into our schools, kids' groups (Girl Scouts), etc. Harder to take a stand against some of the filth being promoted in our schools. Harder to insist on decent TV programming for kids (and adults).
What am I willing to do to make this culture a better/safer/more decent place for kids? That's the question that will ultimately help reduce abuse of children. IMHO throwing stones only obscures the real issues.