We just watched the award winning movie "Spotlight". "The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core." - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/
It brought back memories for me of my time spent at Monterey Bay Academy (three years; 1975-1978). It is a fairly small co-ed parochial high school (in the 1970's it typically had an enrollment of around 500 students) located on the coast of California on the beautiful Monterey Bay.
According to Wikipedia: "In 1948, the government tried unsuccessfully to sell the property to Santa Cruz County for $1 as site of a junior college, and to the California Department of Parks and Recreation for a state park. Leal Grunke, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor from Chowchilla, California, was the procurement officer for the Central California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. When he saw the location for the first time, he proposed using it for a boarding school. He met opposition from church officials, and then from the government. Grunke made several trips from Chowchilla to the War Assets Administration in San Francisco to meet with the general who was considering selling the property to private land developers. With the help of John P. Gifford of the United States Department of Education, Grunke convinced the War Assets Administration to give the land to the Seventh-day Adventist Church on August 13, 1948. No money was paid, not even the $1 asked of Santa Cruz County earlier that year.[10]
Faculty members took turns working security detail, I think especially at night, driving around the school campus in their vehicle. I was asked by Pastor Ron Hoover one night to go on rounds with him in his car. We drove for quite a while around the campus and ended up down on the bluff overlooking the ocean. He parked. We talked a bit and then he said, "now, Bart, I don't want you to be afraid", as he put his right hand on my left leg. I told him I needed to get back up to the dorm.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one. I did a little Google search and discovered this: "Another religion pastor/teacher that was there (I never took a class from him though) was kicked out for allegedly coming onto one of the male students. His name is Ron Hoover. He was married also. Kathy" - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.religion.christian.adventist/dA9QrYdTrfU
Now my experience wasn't especially traumatic at the time nor is it especially moving now, but as I reflect on it is amazing how easily my naïve self could have been enticed in. I give credit to the way I was raised and loved growing up that kept me out of a potentially very harmful situation (it gave me the sense to say "no"). But it does give me some compassion for what the many children went through with Catholic priests because I, like them, respected the authority of the pastor and in my case genuinely liked the man.