i don't get the whole thing with clergy abuse in the news lately. i mean, i believe all the guys who are saying they were abused by priests but i also read that victims abused by priests make up for less than 5% of abuse victims.

everytime i turn on the news or read the paper its all about priests and clergy abuse victims. what about the rest of us who were abused by a relative or teacher or family friend or whateva.

the news makes it sound like cathlic kids are the only ones who experience sexual abuse. whats up with that?

Joey

Joey;
No doubt that abuse is statistcally more present outside of the clergy/church.From the involvement I have seen, the clergy abuse victims opened up the proverbial can of worms with ( what I am aware of ) The Catholic Church. The broader , systemic issue of the church, harboring, fostering and covering for known abusers in their system. Obviously, the abuse was bad enough, but even in the face of solid evidence, the Catholic church, as noted in civil suits/ settlements in many jurisdictions, had morphed into transferring and redeploying blatant abusers. The cover up and lies added fuel to the fire.

If I had a business or society that enabled known abusers to float around the world and avoid treatment , prosecution or any rational remedy, I would imagine the public and media attention would also focus on that. Its complex and spills into the financial and moral/legal outcomes that many archdiocese's faced.

The non-clergy abuse victims/survivors, portrayed in media and current society have, trended to female victims. Just last night i watched a Law and order-SVU episode that dealt with female rape victims. As a recent , more sober aware survivor, I have serious, dynamic, thoughts about more public airing of male survivor issues.. I am seriously weighing some options to tell my story in some forum/media outlet. I am assessing the personal benefits/risks to such a path. In the past I have gone public to expose financial corruption, and after over 10 years other forces aligned to convict the main culprit. It was a long journey, questioned by many until the whole company imploded on the front pages. In some ways that might be easier than a personal airing of survival...I am thinking..Your comments are appreciated on this..
J1