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The LDS church did make mistakes in the past. Since we have a lay clergy (volunteer clergy), they weren't always prepared for the henious crime of child sexual abuse. That is no longer the case. There is a hotline that leaders can call 24 hours a day if they have a problem with sexual abuse in their ward/stake. And if a person is accused and/or found guilty of child sexual abuse/molestation, in the case of the found guilty, they are immediately excommunicated. And it is a LONG process back to being baptized, and they can never have any church position or be in authority over children in the LDS church. And they must have permission from the President of the LDS and his two counsellors to be re-baptized. In the case of accusations, the person is released from their church calling until the issue is resolved. Yes, the LDS church was naive in the past, but no more.

That was the answer I was hoping for. When I was training to be a rape crisis volunteer, we had to see info on child sexual abuse. Frankly, several of us would have happily torn the abusers to shreds by the end of that session. One thing all the molestors had in common was an ability to look like the nice guy next door. To the untrained lay person, they look like the perfect person to put in charge of kids or teenagers. Even Cops and Parole Officers are easily fooled since these guys can talk a good game.

Lay leaders have a disadvantage since they don't usually have the training and experience needed to screen these critters out. That can create a climate where molestors act with impunity (one nasty line used on kids is "Nobody will believe your word against mine.") Hope there is training of some kind for your local leaders and even for their supervisors to be able to avoid the nightmare the Catholics are experiencing.