All Cardinal Mahoney had to do when a report of misconduct came to his attention: Report it immediately to local law enforcement authorities. That would have saved a ton of trouble,legal fees, and hundreds of millions in settlement dollars.
Well, report the cases that warranted prosecution. We have come from a place where no priest could be held accountable to where every priest is presumed guilty. At bottom, the problem is clericalism, the notion that priests form a privileged class in the Church. Which, ironically, is why priests remain celibate, to make sure that the presbyterate not become hereditary. or an actual caste.