What I have never seen mentioned in this regard is the history of the separation of Church and State. It was understood in the past that the Church needed to be protected by incursions from the State, and so separate Ecclesial and secular court systems were set up, the former being governed by Canon Law. If memory serves, all of that unpleasantness between Henry II and Thomas à Becket arose from a dispute over whether clerics could be subjected to secular penalties. (Henry, of course, had Becket murdered in his own cathedral, and was later subjected to a public flogging by Church authorities in punishment.)
Naturally, this system could be sustained only so long as the Ecclesial courts were seen to be carrying out their duties equitably, and not yielding to the temptation of leniency towards their own. I find it rather odd that some are proposing that the Holy Orthodox Church has it right in this regard, with her emphasis on sacerdotal collegiality. The failure of the Catholic Church in dealing with the current crisis suggests instead a greater need for strict hierachical accountability; the hierarchy having failed to exercise the disciplinary power properly within its scope. Greater collegiality could have only aggravated the present situation.