Did you hear the bit about the "fixer" for the Church on This American Life? This poor monk who was sent to patch things up when priests molested people--it caused him to eventually lose his faith, at least his faith in the church, and now he helps the victims as a layperson.
I was saying to Larry that one thing I think people don't get is that molestation by a priest is not only horrible because of the religious factor (i.e. the fact that they are supposed to provide a model of righteous behavior), but really the truly terrible thing is that priests play a role akin to that of a therapist for their parishioners. So, say someone is molesting you, and you want to turn to someone for help/to talk about it--you can't turn to your molester! People need to get over the religious aspect, IMHO, and realize that it's not about bashing the Church, it should be about making sure that all care-givers in our society (doctors, therapists, teachers, priests) are held responsible for how they treat their patients/parishioners. These are people who are supposed to protect and guide us, that is the true betrayal.

I know the Catholic church is getting a lot of flack right now, and certainly there are things to be criticized within the institution itself, but I just want to say that people should realize this is no way reflects upon the average Catholic. (What people don't talk about enough--except for Dan Savage--is how often Protestant youth ministers and ministers also molest kids/young girls. It's not a problem limited to the CC!!!) Anyway, what I am trying to say in a clumsy way is that I think people need to be supportive of Catholics, who are weathering this storm despite being perfectly innocent, and stop blaming them or associating them with the deeds of a few (?) members of the clergy. I feel like it's probably a hard time to be a Catholic, and that just shouldn't be so.