People of faith and nonbelievers alike were shocked and saddened when the issue of child sexual abuse by clergy erupted across this nation.

Similar responses poured forth when an ugly sexual abuse problem within the long-respected Boy Scouts of America became the focus of Americans’ attention, as former Scouts began revealing revolting conduct by adults supervising, helping or guiding them in their Scouting endeavors.

The adults in question were dealt the responsibility of setting a good example with the young people under their supervision but, instead, in multiple instances, were doing otherwise.

Many young people’s lives were harmed forever as a result of the sexual abuse that was inflicted. They always will be haunted by the “ghosts” of what they endured.

With the passage of time, the eruption of the clergy abuse scandal seems like something from long ago, when in fact it wasn’t. Likewise, the Boy Scouts’ scandal seems to have taken a back seat to the seemingly constant flow of bad news of many kinds that fill news publications and electronic media virtually every day.

What is happening at this time on the Boy Scouts front, however, should not be overlooked, despite the other mountains of bad news. What is going on punctuates how bad of a situation was undermining that organization for who knows how long really.

The June 17 Wall Street Journal headline “Boy Scouts sex-abuse claims reach $7 billion” potentially represents only a small fraction of the compensation owed to victims — a degree of compensation many victims never will receive.

In fact, the Journal’s report indicates tens of thousands of claims still need to be reviewed, and “a settlement fund established to compensate survivors is warning they are unlikely to be paid in full, as was once envisioned.”

According to the Journal report, survivors’ claims are valued based on factors including the severity of the abuse and where it occurred.”

That $7 billion mentioned in the Journal’s headline is viewed by many authorities as but a pittance of the Scouts’ true financial obligation tied to the abuse scandal. Wide-ranging and changing estimates that have surfaced have estimated the Scouts’ total potential financial exposure between $30 billion and $103 billion.

Where such amounts would come from is difficult for the average person to fathom.

A lawyer representing a group of sex-abuse survivors has announced that her clients are weighing whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their case.

The bottom line in the Boy Scouts’ horrific scandal seems to be that many more years will be required before the abuse case is finally settled on all fronts.

For example, a lawsuit has been filed against approximately 90 insurers.

Nonsettling insurers haven’t yet paid anything and dispute the bills, said settlement trustee Barbara Houser.

Meanwhile, at one point the Boy Scouts estimated the damages due to victims at $2.4 billion to $7.1 billion.

The Boy Scouts already was the biggest-ever bankruptcy case involving childhood sexual abuse when, in 2022, it received court approval to resolve abuse claims, then estimated to be up to $3.6 billion.

There has been much back-and-forth since then, but only one thing continues to remain unchanged:

The stain on the Boy Scouts’ name, organization and reputation as a whole will exist forever, no matter how fairly or unfairly financial settlements eventually will be.