Why would they have such an obligation? They're not employees of the state. (Maybe except in Germany!) Wouldn't it be very dangerous to require people not directly involved in a case to report their "suspicions" to the "Authorities?" The Authorities and corporations in most places in the urban West love sodomy. What an opportunity for political assassination! Homosexuals would use it against normal priests. As social workers in the employ of states and cities, they've probably been doing it to persecute normal families for years.
Now, should a bishop have the obligation to vet complaints against priests under his authority, and to investigate and punish bad ones? Of course. That's what the National Catholic Register doesn't want, since they hate the conservative nature of Catholic teaching, and side with the almighty secular state and homosexuals wherever they can.
The NC Register is good. It’s the National Catholic REPORTER that is the loony left paper that actually has done a huge amount to make it look as if every priest is a child molester, since it gives the paper the power to destroy. At the same time it’s so gay-friendly it makes you upchuck.
The paper doesn’t appear to see the contradiction.
Notice that the priest the NCR is trying to slime is a veteran conservative. As the article says, his research documents how bad homosexuality is for children's upbringing.
http://www.snapnetwork.org/bishop_robert_finn_has_been_ousted
Perhaps they will go after the Baptists next.