I seriously doubt that that number of parishioners knew. Queers are very good at hiding and obfuscating. And from my reading of the PA report (I'm only up to page 300 out of 1400), those who did know were told "it's been reported to the bishop" and went away expecting it was being handled.
Virtually everything I read points up two things...the laity by far did NOT know, and they are by damned expecting the hierarchy to get it right this time or there would be consequences. Any priest or bishop who thinks they can get away with delay and obfuscation this time is simply foolish.
I was active in an Alinsky organization run by Msgr John Egan with the mandatory support of 22 of the 23 Catholic churches in the neighborhood for the Alinsky organization.
I heard the voices of lay and clergy from all 23 Catholic churches, plus many of the schools which were also in the Alinsky organization (NCO-Northwest Community Organization). The Alisnky organization played on finding things people were upset about and organizing around those issues. I would estimate that 95% of the 20,000 people who attended an anti-Urban Renewal hearing (the biggest issue in the area) ... 95% of 20,000 were aware of the pdeophile problem in the Clergy. Of course, only 75% of the 20,000 were Catholic. So many Protestants were also aware of it.
The NCO had a rule that they only attacked outside enemies, eg Daley and city hall. The pedophile problem was considered an internal issue. Interestingly, if you think back to the 60s. The Republians were the pro-homo party. The Democrats were the ones who were beating the s..t out of homos. The far left wing Alinsky organizers were extremely anti-homo. It was the non-ideologues who prevented them from organizing on that issue.
Separately, in 1969 I rented an apartment to a Niles Seminary drop out who dropped out because he did not like the non-stop homo pressure on him and his fellow students. My tenant tried to organize other Niles students and dropouts who were unhappy with the situation at Niles. He had a few meetings in his apartment of 8 or 9 but it never went anywhere. He only lived in my place about 4 months and then moved on.