“You don’t lie about a priest like that,”

Well, that is exactly what happened in my house also. The exact same words.
My parents immediately left to protect the priest and call me a liar.

I was fortunate. As the priest was beginning the rape process he turned his back for a second and I was able to escape. Then for almost a year I was able to make myself very scarce during his constant visits to my house and my classroom. Circumstances were in my favor.

The rift between me and my parents lasted until their deaths.

That they are always to be trusted, never questioned.

Thus we see a specific religious belief in a specific religion that helped make the abuse possible. People who COULD have done something were instead silenced because of religious teaching.

I'm sorry about what you had to endure, rurallib. And sorry it affected your relationship with your parents.

The priest was the guy who married them. My father had an aunt who was a nun. I understood their reaction in a way. What I didn't understand was that they would not even listen to me.

Like a lot of families we looked pretty calm on the outside but were pretty dysfunctional behind the closed doors.

... experienced much the same. However, when he 'showed his affection' to a neighbor boy as our priest did to him, my brother is the one who was sent to the reformatory. He didn't understand why what he did was wrong while the priest doing it was ok. My father beat him for 'lying' about our priest (who has since been defrocked and died ... may his soul burn in hell forever). My brother never got the help he needed, and as a result lost custody of his only son when his then wife accused him of fondling their toddler. My brother denied doing anything, and I really don't know what the truth is (as I obviously wasn't there). The fact that this priest messed my brother up to the point that it affected this rest of his life in one way or another makes me absolutely livid. I was raised Catholic, attended regularly, and was even married in the Church. But I have turned my back on them for this and for all the other innocents savaged by a culture of silence and coverup.

Where does it say that one should listen to the priest vs. the child? I would think, as parents I would be very concerned and appalled. Something happened...one doesn't go off into the deep end w/o cause, and I think you hit it on the nail. It's sad when one's own parents do not believe their own child.

Perhaps one day, your brother will find peace...bless you and yours...

That more preist/preachers don't die from lead poisoning.

Faith is stronger than truth.

You don’t lie about a priest like that.

Whenever I hear a theist tell me their faith is their all, I wonder what they have against the truth.

This would never happen in a world where we are prepared to see powerful people abuse their power. There has to be quicker remedies.

To the International Catholic Church Child Rape Enabling & Coverup Conspiracy: Fuck you, too.

The Catholic Church condones it by enabling it and covering it up.

Father James Brzyski:

You know you are listening to an apologist when they try to convince you this isn't so.

so we shouldn't talk about the abuse that happened in the Catholic church.

business has grown to such proportions. Every parent knows that their children sometimes tell lies. Usually, they can tell when that happens and make it a teaching opportunity. But, for people who are religious, the trust they put in their priest or pastor often overrides their sense of truth and lying.

Many children have been disbelieved when they tell of being abused by someone who is trusted. Often the perpetrator of the abuse takes advantage of such trust to avoid being caught.

For me, that compounds the horror of such crimes.