According to this article by George Weigel (Link) -- which maybe I should run as a thread in itself ---
Sex abuse by priests is "a phenomenon that spiked between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s but seems to have virtually disappeared (six credible cases of clerical sexual abuse in 2009 were reported in the U.S. bishops’ annual audit, in a Church of some 65,000,000 members). ...The Catholic Church is, by empirical measure, the safest environment for young people in America today."
But this is not in the news; or I could say, it's the news nobody knows: the thorough self-examination, investigation, and internal cleansing which has transformed and is transforming the Church in the USA, in the past 20 and especially the past 12 years, since the introduction og the VIRTUS risk assessment and intervention program (Link) in Catholic parishes and schools.
It's a story that needs to be told.
This may be true... I hope it is. However, it doesn't undo what was done. Unless all those who perpetrated and perpetuated it are prosecuted, it simply means that the church is sweeping at least some of it under the rug.
If I was a Catholic, I would be screaming at my church to "out" ALL the priests who perpetrated this foul deed so they could be prosecuted and punished. Furthermore, I would demand that the cardinals, bishops and priests who concealed the crimes of other priests be exposed for what they are, enablers. I would certainly not be cheering when the leader claims immunity from testifying.
But since I am a non-Catholic, this entire sordid mess underscores my understanding of ecclesiology, namely that "church" is wherever people are gathered in Jesus' name, not some vast international organization that claims to be a state unto itself and immune from the scrutiny of the press, media and the legal authorities whenever it commits and/or conceals crimes.