I know this isn't unheard of with protestants and other religions, but it seems to be pretty much universal with catholics. I've known several catholics who tell stories of severe beatings both at home, in the church, and at parochial schools. My parents took me to a catholic day care once where I was beaten to bruises and had my mouth washed out with soap on the first day for very minor infractions. I never went back. My parents never used corporal punishment on us ever.

It doesn't seem surprising they'd use the same methods to rape children.

I've sure heard a lot of stories about nuns whacking kids hands with rulers. It seems like everyone who went to a Catholic school has one of those stories.

Gives new meaning to "suffer the little children," doesn't it?

Thanks, Jesus!

That's what it always sounded like to me. Nothing like that in the public schools I attended.

Nuns whacking hands with rulers, etc.

Damn that church has problems.

Raping children might be the worst of it, but it's far from where the problems end.

They are Catholic because their parents are Catholic. They became priests because their parents wanted them to. They were beaten in Catholic school, so now they beat children. And so on, back through the centuries.