Father Andrew Greely says that Berry has uncovered "an incredible mass of corruption...the greatest scandal in the history of religion in America and perhaps the most serious crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation." Greely also says that his reporting is "accurate and restrained, indeed if anything almost too conservative."
Berry won the 1986 Catholic Press Association Award for his coverage of clerical sex abuse. He documents many things that people have been saying here:
1. Over 400 Catholic priests in North America were caught molesting children between 1984 and 1992.
2. The typical molester abuses scores to hundreds of children.
3. The Church has paid out over $400 million in settlements, and the total is expected to reach $1 billion before they are done.
4. The Church tried to cover it all up.
5. The press has underreported it. The New York Times refused his stories, saying, "We want to do a child abuse story but not in the context of the Catholic Church." Subsequent refusals came from The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Nation, and Mother Jones.
Surely the fact that 1 billion has been given in settlements over the years is proof that the church has been aware of the problem.