Children who are abused are often too frightened to complain about what has happened. Others who do speak out are not believed. This was not the experience of a senior Religious who is a survivor of childhood abuse. Here he relates his experience and warns against the demonisation of perpetrators.Pope Francis has taken firm action to respond to sexual abuse by clergy, thanks in no small measure to the prophetic witness of victims themselves, some of whom the Pope has met. His special commission’s recommendations last week (see above) gives some hope.There is, however, something about the attitude of society towards perpetrators of sexual abuse that disturbs me. It is the tendency to reduce the matter to a criminal offence, as if that’s all it is. Public interest after convicti