It moves me to marvel how many straw men get thrown up by devout Catholics when this topic comes up. There are duties unique to a hierarchical church.
I'm not a devout Catholic by any stretch, but I can't possibly believe that the Catholic Church is the only institution with this problem. Take islam for example, child sex abuse is practically condoned in that religion and yet you see no protests against it. Of course this does not excuse these crimes, but one can only concluded that it is anti-Catholic bigotry that is the driving force of these protests since child sex abuse by other religions is perfectly acceptable to these protesters.
I also wonder how many times the Catholic Church has to atone for these crimes? If those who committed the crimes were prosecuted, or these issues are beyond the realm of prosecution in the legal system, and if the Church has made efforts to reach legal settlements with the actual victims of abuse, then what more can be done?