A religious institution can least afford scandal involving
highly unethical and illegal activity when the world is secularizing; the
headwind alone requires a lot of energy just to stay in place, let alone move
forward. The trail of child-rape scandals and cover-ups had by 2018 made a dent
in the number of Roman Catholics in Latin America, yet other factors also
accounted for the declines in church membership, and thus obfuscated estimates
of the fallout in particular. I contend
that the gravity of the sexual abuse and related cover-ups by clergy warrants
more than just being reckoned as one of several factors, even though the actual
exodus was muted relative to the severity of the crimes.
The full essay is at "Church Scandals"