Up to 350 Irish priests were likely accused child abusers

As an atheist I can recognize that this is not an indictment of Catholicism or even the priesthood. What this is is a demonstration that pedophiles recognize that becoming a priest means getting into a position of trust which allows them unsupervised access to children, allows them to "groom" their victims and then use that position of trust to suppress their victims ("Who would believe you over a priest?") and to even turn the victim's family against the victim ("How could you EVER accuse a priest of such things!?!") Look at the Penn State debacle and the actions of Jerry Sandusky...he went to the trouble of creating a major "charity" specifically targeting troubled young boys who would be less likely to be believed over a "respected" coach. In the case of the Catholic Church, however, the pedophiles were able to get away with it long enough to create a significant subculture in which their peers and their superiors (check how many of them have been pedophiles) protected and shielded them "for Mother Church." This is not an indictment of religion or the Catholic Church, but possibly the most significant example of the creation of a pedophile subculture protected by those whose concern should have been protecting the vulnerable victims.