A practice within the priesthood vigorously denied by the laity until the whole cesspool collapsed. The enormity is still slowly sinking into the laity, and as Francis rapidly destroys the last lie which much of the laity clung to (namely the lie that the Pope lacked the power to directly intervene) then people are responding by leaving Catholicism.
That does not necessarily equate to abandoning faith in God, and a thorough housecleaning might bring them back.
Canonizing JP2 was a bad idea. He casually sent away all the victims of the clergy who approached him about the issue. Now Francis is using the papal authority which JP2 should have used to clean out the perverts (proving that the power existed all along) and is attempting to guide the Roman Catholics into communism.
Overall, it's a self made mess.
The presidency didn't cause this.
“I believe that the degree of loss within Catholicism ties directly to defending pedophiles”
The problem is not pedophiles. The problem is ordinary, garden-variety homosexuals. The evildoers advance the notion of rampant pedophilia to take the heat off themselves.
“Canonizing JP2 was a bad idea...JP2 should have used papal authority to clean out the perverts.”
Yes. The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bad bishops.
“Overall, it’s a self made mess.”
Who is the “self” that made it? Faggot priests? Lay people who neglected to lay hands upon pervert priests and throw them out of the churches and into the gutter?
Aside from Satan and those who serve him, who is to blame?