[Julie Steiner]

No need to apologize. You could be quite right. And I have no problem with people getting emotional about this. WWJD? Maybe flip a few tables. (For starters.)

We cross-posted.

The number of predators was, percentage-wise, very small; the number of people shushing and/or blaming the victims was HUGE. When the first stories of abuse started getting media attention in the mid-'80s, the victim-blaming directly or indirectly included almost everyone in the Church, including me. We laypeople have to accept responsibility for our role in perpetuating the climate in which the abuse flourished. Our ignorance doesn't entirely excuse us, any more than it excuses the guys in charge.

And the victim-blaming goes on. Even nowadays I hear grumbling that people's favorite charities have had funding slashed, to pay victims' settlements, and how those greedy, vengeful victims are stealing from the poor. I don't hear it often anymore, because I get in people's faces about it, but I do occasionally hear it.