This is an excerpt.
This may, or may not, explain why priests committed these terrible acts.
But it also dodges the true question for most people, which is not the abuse itself but rather the decades-long coverup and enabling of it by Church authorities.
That isn’t much of a mystery at all. It was caused by those in power losing sight of the purpose of their organization, whereby protecting the organization became infinitely more important than its true purpose. To the point where that protection itself was a very nearly ultimate betrayal of that purpose.
Does anyone seriously doubt how Christ would have responded to sexual assault of the children at his feet by those who claimed to be serving Him? Consider the episode in the Temple involving whips. And that was merely commercial misconduct.
Really!
"Forgive me father for I have sinned. I've been buggering the alter boy."
"Do you repent from these sins? Say three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers."
If it’s a mystery to the pope, then he’s on the lower end of the bell curve of intelligence.