from society as a whole, and not subject to good oversight.
Certainly, it has long been a problem in boarding schools, children's homes and orphanages.
After all, such schools and institutions are a paedophile's dream: plenty of children; with any luck, you can be in a position of power over them; they won't dare to disobey or inform on you, and may even think that you must be doing the right thing - after all you're the person in authority.
I don't think that Catholicism as a *religion* leads to increased paedophilia at all; but Catholic schools as *institutions* may be, or have been, more isolated/authoritarian/less subject to transparency and 'sunlight'. And teachers and priests who were accused of sexual abuse often get away with it: even when authorities were informed, the culprits were often not criminally prosecuted, or even sacked, but at most relocated to another institution of similar nature.
What has struck me is how often American Republicans seem to get caught in dubious and sometimes abusive sexual activities. I would guess the maths there is something like 'authoritarian attitudes + a morbid preoocupation with other people's sex lives often = something none too pretty'.
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