power

This report from 2004 would indicate this 'problem' is not an isolated case in the Province of Quebec. The following report was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests and Deacons, by Karen Terry et al., prepared by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Washington DC: USCCB, 2004)

This report was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and was based on surveys completed by the Catholic dioceses in the United States. The surveys provided information from diocesan files on each priest accused of sexual abuse and on each of the priest's victims. That information was filtered, so that the research team did not have access to the names of the accused priests or the dioceses where they worked. The report presents aggregate findings. The dioceses were encouraged to issue reports of their own based on the surveys that they had completed. BishopAccountability.org has collected many of those diocesan John Jay reports. Please see our note on how the following Web version of the John Jay report was created, and on the two versions of the report that are available.

The entire report can be read here:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2004_02_27_JohnJay/index.html

One exerpt from this report:

2.2 SUMMARY RESULTS: PREVALENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF YOUTHS UNDER 18 BY CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND DEACONS
A paramount concern for all involved with the study has been the determination of the prevalence of the problem in the Catholic Church in the United States. The survey responses make it clear that the problem was indeed widespread and affected more than 95% of dioceses and approximately 60% of religious communities. Of the 195 dioceses and eparchies that participated in the study, all but seven have reported that allegations of sexual abuse of youths under the age of 18 have been made against at least one priest serving in ecclesiastical ministry in that diocese or eparchy. Of the 140 religious communities that submitted surveys, all but 30 reported at least one allegation against a religious priest who was a member of that community.

Since this report is commissioned by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, it can hardly be classed as Protestant, Catholic Bashing. Someplace in the report it claims over 4200 priests have had accusations made against them, which seems a staggering number no matter how you would like to 'spin' it.