Ah, this old chestnut. There are a lot of good right-minded individuals who follow Catholic rules (I know a few of them) but the Catholic church itself seems to be utterly corrupt at its core when it comes to sex abuse cases. These cases are so common than there are special funds and insurance policies under discussion to protect the church from lawsuits on the matter (I kid you not) -
http://www.slate.com/id/2170482/pagenum/all/
What's more the subject is big enough that Wikipedia has a special page devoted to the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church_sex_abuse_scandal
Oh, and then there's this little beauty:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm
Almost all religions attempt to control the masses in one form or another. Some attempt to make the masses share the same banal thoughts and ideas in order to indoctrinate, others do it for cash, and then you get the really bad ones that try and control sexual behaviour - which NEVER works - and often results in highly oppressed desires leading to perverse outletting. I have taken quite an interest in the Catholic church and its child abuse cases. We're all writing on here about it but I don't think any of us really understand just how rife it really is. It is SO common that one could almost be forgiven for believing it is institutionally ingrained in the belief system and that Catholic priests have the same sense of "entitlement" to the choir boys as our MPs have to the expenses claims.
I do think that the Catholic church is one of the most highly morally corrupt, perverse, broken religions in the world today. It preaches certain behaviours and reinforces these with massive guilt, and yet is fundamentally rotten at its core. It preaches against the use of condoms, especially in AIDS-stricken African nations, and expects a level of behaviour so unnatural as to almost deliberately set the follower up for guaranteed failure.
But hey, I don't hate Catholics, I actually feel sorry for most of them who are decent people following a rotten religious authority that forces harsh rules on them and STILL calls them sinners for the most trivial natural urge. No wonder many of them end up practicing unnatural acts!