I assumed he was referring to the sexual abuse crisis.
Indeed. After 1968 many priests left the Church, they said to get married but really, I think, because they lost their faith. Many others did remains, but only to put in time until their retirement. They stopped recruiting for the priesthood. Many got “into” the mindfixs of social workers, since they not longer believed. Others got into litutgical reform. That may have been attractive to the gays who slipped into the priesthood at this time, that and the cover it gave them, either to remain in the closet and/or to find sexual partners. It was the latter who seem to have caused the sexual practice. The bishops knew what a squirally bunch they had but kept the lid on because they were short-handed, and because the stigma on homosexuality was dissolving. Then came 2002 and they found that gays were not so “harmless” after all.