Roman Catholic Church child abuse in the Middle Ages

It may seem to some that the sexual abuse of children by the clergy is a recent, modern problem. Not so! In the Middle Ages the rules of some religious orders actually made provision for punishing monks who played around with little boys, which implies that this was a common activity! Among other offences — punishable by flagellation — was that of ‘indecencies of any kind with boys’ (and with other monks), and in this case the whipping was inflicted in public. That such a provision was deemed necessary certainly admits that abuses took place, at least on some occasions.

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/07/the-catholic-churchs-scandal-of-child-abuse-in-the-middle-ages/