# Catholic Priests Molesting Children: Was This Always Known About? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2022, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380 "2022-11-22T14:33:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380/161 "2025-01-16T00:58:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When I went through Virtus training, there were two parts to it. First, we had a presentation explaining how you couldn’t tell who was a predator, and that they were often people that folks trust implicitly, and thought it was obvious that they were good people. And often, abusers were a child’s own parents or other close family members. > > The second part consisted of advising us to trust our guts, and to not allow anyone but parents or other close family members to have access to the children under our care. How did this go when a lay person had to challenge a priest or nun? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380/162 "2025-01-16T02:19:03Z")
Okay, I scrolled back. The clip was from “Airplane II”, which was by all accounts a complete bomb, and I personally have not seen it. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380/163 "2025-01-16T08:25:41Z")
[deleted redundant] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380/164 "2025-01-17T21:50:20Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > How did this go when a lay person had to challenge a priest or nun? I haven’t had that experience, nor heard directly from anyone else who has, so I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380/165 "2025-02-14T22:04:10Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I looked him up on Google last night, and found him: he’s still alive, still married to the same woman, and serving as a lay leader at the Catholic church I attended as a kid. We had a priest (the cute one) who left the priesthood and married a widow in our parish. I looked him up about five years ago, and they were still married (and this would have been 40 years later). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priests-molesting-children-was-this-always-known-about/975380.md?page=8)