Why do Catholics support churches where abuse has taken place?

Answer 1

Another Answer from our community:

Catholics support the Church because It is the Mystical Body of Christ, and the means God has established to forgive men their sins and bring them to salvation. Abuse takes place anywhere sinners may happen to be, which means that it can happen in Church as well as anywhere else, though it is more scandalous when it occurs in a Church. I would suggest that you read the parable of the wheat and the tares.

Answer 2

In most cases, Catholics continue to support churches where abuses such as paedophilia have taken place, simply because they do not know the facts. Often it is only decades later that victims come forward and publicly accuse the priest, who by then may have been moved to a different parish where he will probably continue to offend.

In many cases, the Catholic hierarchy is told of the abuse at the time of its occurrence or reasonably soon afterwards but, in spite of a legal obligation to provide this information to the police, chooses to forgive the priest concerned or deal with the matter internally. The result is what we call a cover-up. The perpetrator goes unpunished, the victims suffer in silence, often to commit suicide in later life, and the public continues to trust a priest who should never be trusted.