Priest sex abuse in Italy comes out into the open...

It happened night after night, the deaf man said, sometimes in the priest's bedroom, sometimes in the bathroom, even in the confessional.

When he was a young boy at a Catholic-run institute for the deaf, Alessandro Vantini said, priests sodomized him so relentlessly he came to feel "as if I were dead." This year, he and dozens of other former students did something highly unusual for Italy: They went public with claims they were forced to perform sex acts with priests.

For decades, a culture of silence has surrounded priest abuse in Italy, where surveys show the church is considered one of the country's most respected institutions. Now, in the Vatican's backyard, a movement to air and root out abusive priests is slowly and fitfully taking hold. More...

Don't miss:

1. Pastor in India arrested for raping shelter refugees...
2. South African bishop accused of raping his three daughters. 
3. Ireland and the Catholic Church:'horrific acts of depravity'
4. Italian priest in Kenya accused of being a child-abuser...
5. The Irish State colluded with the Church to hide shocking child abuse...
6. Alaska, a Jesuit pedophile paradise?
7. The Vatican and sex crimes... (and how the Church protected its pedophile priests)