www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/earticle/9548/

it is worth pointing out the reality of the extent of allegations against the Catholic Church in order to expose the non-rationalist, anti-humanist underpinnings of the current fashion for Catholic-baiting amongst the liberal, opinion-forming classes in the US and the UK. The wildly inaccurate claim about thousands of children being raped by the representatives of an institution which actively ‘protected and financed child rape’ suggests that modern-day atheism, this New Atheism, has zero interest in applying the tools of rational investigation and critical questioning to the problem of certain religions’ infrastructure, and instead is hellbent on using the politics of fear to invent a fantastical rape-happy ogre, in contrast to which it can pose as the pure defender of childlike innocence and societal integrity.

A brilliant and brave article.

The media has been guilt of PAEDOHYSTERIA about the Catholic Church.

The abuse victims that have been interviewed on TV have all been in their 50s and 60s meaning that the abuse we are talking about mainly happened in the 50s and 60s.

To blame the current POPE for what happened mainly in the 50s and 60s is totally crazy. Yet the media act as if all current Catholic Priests are out there right now kiddy fiddling.

The truth of things is this - those who work with children such as Teachers and Priests are subjected to such massive amounts of checks ( and have been since the 1980s ) that it is extremely rare for any abuse to take place. Yes you occasionally have teacher /student relationships taking place but you rarely if ever hear of Primary School or 12/13 years old being abused by CRB checked professionals.

Now when it comes to professions that have no CRB checks - such as the POLICE and LAWYERS and JUDGES and COUNCIL OFFICIALS - these are the people who seem to be coming up in court more often than say Priests - the stories on here for instance have reflected mainly historic cases or current cases again Police and Lawyers etc.

This article actually examines the figures and shows the media find a figure and then times it by 10 and misrepresent it.

I would be interested to know how many CURRENT allegations there are against Priests in the UK ( not historic cases - which I would expect to be epidemic from compensation seekers )

you are right BR....total pedo hysteria.

Yet another case in Oz about a retired priest living in Japan and supposedly covered up by the church.

The 'victims' are claiming all sorts of catastrophic things happened in their lives...breakdowns, depression, drunkenness..and what did the man do ??....supposedly rubbed his elbow on their arms or chest when he was bending over them. Not even sexual..yet they are proclaiming him a 'pedo' who got away as he has Japanese citizenship.

At that rate I should be claiming I was ritually abused weekly with six of the best (sometimes only four !) as the demented English master took a flying run at us wimpering lads and crashed a cane down upon our palms. If you feel over from the pain you were made to get up and hold your hand out again !!

I still have a bent knuckle from one beating.

And I see in the USA a teacher was jailed for clipping a student over the head. Yet the top shock jock in Oz is famous for aiming blackboard dusters at students who annoyed him and wacking them on the skull with expert aim. And I must have been clipped fifty times for being so cheeky !!

Come to think of it..perhaps I will sue !!!

I will bet there are just as many child abusers working on national papers in the UK; do they "cover up"? Well, if they behave like they do over hacking...

And I will bet you the pop stars of the 60s and 70s didn't ask desperate groupies in heavy makeup and push up bras, begging for sex, to show their passports first, please!

4% of priests are perverts? 94% of pop stars!