Cynical,
The point about faith in God you bring up is a good one.  The church portrays faith as a "gift" from God.  I have long wondered what that means.  In homily after homily, what's been portrayed suggests one should feel guilty if our faith is not strong: as if we were ALL given the same gift of faith, and somehow, we squandered ours.  I don't buy that.

Fact is, I kinda see belief/faith in God as not unlike what grows in a couple after a long life together.  It's something based on trust, on shared experience, on an almost innate knowledge of how the other will act and react, what each other needs, what we can provide, anticipate, etc.  I've heard not one word on this topic from those at the top of the church that makes any sense to me since the scandal.   What the victims of abuse suffer is a complete breach of that trust: a wound reopened by every act of the bishops that lets us down, that tries to paper over.  

I think our very understanding of God must change now...