The local archbishop or cardinal should personally visit (unless the victims or their parents do not wish him to) every abuse victim, make sure he or she has whatever counselling and support is necessary and offer generous financial settlments. The Cardinal/Archbishop should diretly and personally acknowledge that the Church breached the trust of the victim and his or her family.
Anything less is inadequate.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for Cardinal Law to visit the victims. He's too busy trying to deflect criticism of himself ("poor record keeping") and breaking up those "militant" Church groups that are forming within different parishes in order to formulate a way to deal with the evil pervading the Archdiocese of Boston and the Catholic Church in America.
Quite frankly, the Pope should hire outside attorneys, have them come in and review the files of all priests alleged to have committed sexual abuse, and also find out if bishops & cardinals knowingly moved these people around, and present the findings to the Pope. Then the Pope defrocks his people who were part of the collusion, puts in replacements who have a heart for God and their hands in their pockets, and lets them defrock the priests at the local level where the allegations are legitimate. The Church openly makes restitution - spiritually and psychologically and financially in each case. The police are made aware of who the abusers are, and the local DA's can decide who to try.
If this doesn't come from the top, I don't think anything of any lasting significance is going to happen. The cardinals are already disagreeing among themselves about one strike and you're out.
I'm not a Catholic, but have much respect for my fellow Catholics and I sure hope the lay people are not going to settle for anything less.