As someone has said, the pope is not the CEO of a multinational corporation or a federal agency but something more like an extended family, or even a nation. So it is wrong to say that the “hierarchy knew” This is like saying that the “government” knew about this, that or the other. There is no such thing as “the government.” There are a billion things that go on that the government knows nothing abou (Thank God!). Forgive me but there is a large element of witch hunt going on here, yellow journalism. It ought to be enough to look at the wrong things that were done and evaluate the evidence. People are leaping to conclusions, led by bad reports such as the one in the NYT.
Cardinal Bernard Law wound up in Vatican City for a reason Robby S.