Without getting into the problems with Pope Francis let me say that this a false and dishonest story.
1. There are almost no “pedophile priests”. There are almost no priests that have sexually assaulted young children. The pedophiles in the priesthood are almost nonexistent and far fewer than in any other part of society.
2. In the recent past there was a small network of homosexual priests and bishops. They were a very small percentage of the total priesthood, but they worked together and promoted and protected each other. Pope John Paul II and Bishop Ratzinger worked diligently to remove these priests wherever possible.
3. The vast majority of priests are good and holy men who sacrifice for others and do much good.
4. The media creates the myth of pedophile priests because the media is strongly anti-Catholic and anti-Christian. The media hate people of faith and do everything they can to attack people of faith and religions.
5. The media almost never report honestly on the work done by good priests. They frequently spread lies about Christians and Christianity and do all they can to make Christians look bad. The false stories about pedophile priests is just one small part of this overall strategy
>>There are almost no “pedophile priests”. There are almost no priests that have sexually assaulted young children<<
Oh my! These are these statements are factually incorrect.
I agree with some of what I think your overall point is but:
1. All the evidence suggests that there are far more than a small number of homosexuals in the priesthood. Personally, I think there a lot of them, depending on the location and order, etc. For example, among the the American Jesuits, there clearly are many, many homosexuals, perhaps a majority. Proof? Just ask one of them.
2. This limiting of the term ‘pedophile’ to abusers of small children is getting down into the weeds of technical speak. In common parlance, those who pursue sexual contact with minors, even 12-15 year-olds, are pedophiles. Where the victims are of the same sex, the attackers are also homosexuals. The vast majority of priest offenders were homosexuals.
3. Almost every diocese in the USA had multiple offenders. That is not a small network.
4. The pedophile problem in the priesthood has mostly gone away. But the homosexual problem remains.
6. It is unnatural for a grown man to be celibate, and be given the ecclesiastical charter to “counsel” people, particularly young people. Our oldest daughter married a Catholic. She was counseled by a priest in preparation for marriage that if her husband strayed during their marriage, she had to “share in the responsibility” for his infidelity. What a load of crap. This nonsense from a man who was not married. There is a downside to dedicating your life to your church and forsaking a normal life, and while as you point out, the numbers of pedophile priests is a very small number, one is too many and the Catholic Church didn’t do the right thing about it for many years.