Mr. SACCO: As children, we looked up to the priest as being very, you know, very much Godlike and they could do no wrong, and you know, everyone looked up to them. So for this to happen from a priest, it just compounded it.

Ms. SACCO: I would say it definitely affected his life. It has affected our life together just because of the way that he is because of this. He doesn't trust anybody. He doesn't get close to anybody.

SEVERSON: It's the lack of trust that may be hurting the Church as much as cash settlements. Father Dominic Grassi in Chicago says a few bad priests have tarnished the thousands of good ones, and he blames the Church in Boston.

Father DOMINIC GRASSI: The hierarchy in Boston did the larger Church a real disservice. Why they let it happen is unconscionable.

SEVERSON: Father Grassi says his job has become much more difficult.

Father GRASSI: A good pastor is close to people. Anything that gets in the way of creating that level of intimacy and that level of trust makes it difficult to pastor the people. It's harder than it used to be. Where things we took for granted we have to question, we have to watch ourselves. A hand on a back. A tousling of a child's hair.

SEVERSON: Father Grassi says most of the priests he knows are good men. There are others, though, who he says should have never been ordained in the first place.

Father GRASSI: We can't lower standards because we have fewer numbers. We can't look at our success by the number of men that are in our seminaries, which some dioceses are doing. In fact, there are some dioceses that accept men that have been turned down by two or three or four other dioceses.

SEVERSON: It's difficult to measure if priests are more prone to pedophilia than the general population. But there has always been speculation that the problem within the Church relates to celibacy.

Dr. SIPE: All the psychiatric literature will tell you that sexual deprivation can lead to picking a minor as a sexual partner.

SEVERSON: Here in this Boston suburb we spoke with a priest, a convicted child molester who says he underwent treatment 12 years ago and hasn't touched a child since. The priest did not want to talk on camera. He said he was also raped by his priest, but he blames his condition more on the Church's seminary system where, in his words, he was indoctrinated against the three "Ws" -- wine, women, and waltzing -- and against men. And then he found himself surrounded by adoring young boys.

Dr. SIPE: There is a structure within the Church that fosters immaturity. We're boys together, and the Church supplies all that. It is a kind of adolescent attitude, and there are those who turn to adolescents because of their immaturity.

SEVERSON: Joe Dulong says that even though his traumatic experience changed his life, it hasn't swayed his faith in the Church.

Mr. DULONG: I stayed with the Catholic Church, over the years. This molestation took place when I was a young boy, but after that I met some very vital priests that lived out their vows every single day.

SEVERSON: But many victims are like Jim Sacco , no longer a believer.

(to Mr. Sacco): How has it affected you spiritually?

Mr. SACCO: I don't go to church anymore. I don't go to any church.

SEVERSON: So you are not able to separate the individual from the church?

Mr. SACCO: No, I felt that the Church, him being a priest and what happened to me -- I kind of put them together, and so I have a very difficult time. And even to this day if I go into a church, I just don't feel right.

SEVERSON: Barbara Sacco says she still has a faith in God. But now she questions organized religion.

Ms. SACCO: How can I believe in something that has done this to so many children knowingly? They moved these priests around and exposed them to more and more children, and that just disgusts me. That they knew about this. How could they do that and sleep at night? How could you be in charge of an organization [and let] that happen?

SEVERSON: And then there are the other victims -- the priests, like Father Grassi, who feel the suspicious stares of the faithful who no longer trust the messengers.

Father GRASSI: I think what happened is a light that has been put in a dark corner, and we are starting to see what is in that dark corner. And we have to keep that light going.

SEVERSON: The Boston diocese has now handed over the names of the 80 priests accused of child abuse, and implemented new training and screening policies for priests -- a light glowing in a dark corner and a start along the path to redeeming the trust that has been betrayed.

I'm Lucky Severson for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY in Boston.

ABERNETHY: Since the Boston tragedies became public, neighboring dioceses in New Hampshire and Maine said they have given or will give state prosecutors the names of priests there who have been accused in the past of child sexual abuse.