Regarding Pope JPII and the problems of abusive priests - the story I read was that JPII’s experience with the Polish government authorities was this - they frequently used false accusations of homosexuality against good, faithful priests as a weapon against the Catholic Church. At the time, the church was the only organization in Poland with any power or prestige to rally the people against the totalitarian Communist regime. Therefore, JPII tended to dismiss such claims as political in nature. This was, of course, a bad error on his part. We need to remember also that by the time these scandals hit the public news organizations, JPII was seriously impaired by his Parkinson’s Disease. His strongest ally in the Vatican was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, upon whose shoulders, rested the problem of cleaning out the church. By that time homosexuals in the clergy had reached into the upper echelons of the hierarchy, bishops, archbishops, and even some cardinals.[not unlike our current US problem with the Deep State].
Cardinal Ratzinger was deeply disliked by liberals in the Catholic Church. When he was elected Pope, all sort of nasty comments came forth including calling him a Nazi because he had been forced into the Hitler Youth as a 15 year old boy. Susan Sarandon harped upon how terrible PBXVI was as he was a Nazi - all because Pope Benedict was Not afraid to call sin a sin. In other words, he was too traditional for the leftists in Hollywood and all over the world. It was a tremendous burden that was put upon his shoulders, and the lavender mafia in the church has been fighting ever since. It was not surprising that they actually succeeded in having the papacy vacant so they could install their favorite.
The thing is, (with JP2) that people who had been abused as children went to him to ask for something to be done. Frequently.
Mentally dismissing all of these people with all of these stories as politics when so many of them had withdrawn from society in their hurt goes beyond mere skepticism.
I have heard (for a couple decades) within the context of recovery services and ministries for people sexually abused within their childhood comparisons between John Paul II and Papa Joe Stalin in that people who really truely believed in him and thought that if he only knew he would fix it ...turned out to be sadly wrong.
For all his justified laudation for opposing communism, John Paul II earned that comparison in every sense of the word.
Obviously I move in different circles, and this perspective does not come from nor will it be found in the press.