As I see it all this seems to be institutionalized. In the past when the pedophiles and homosexuals within the Roman Catholic institution committed such atrocities they knew they would be safe because their “activities” would be covered up and the worst that they could expect in the form of punishment would be to be transferred elsewhere. Only the most incredibly egregious and persistent offences would result in expulsion. The RC hierarchy is explicitly complicit since not only do they cover up such offences but they are especially adept at doing so.
First, it is even more apparent now that there is a Lavender Mafia that works in many dioceses, across dioceses, even internationally. Which means these debauched people work with each other to recruit new victims, to promote each other, and to protect each other. That is a different and far worse thing than what you are referring to. What you refer to is how, in the past, a bishop would discover a priest who violated his vows, remove him and send him to psychological counseling, and the counselor would eventually confirm that he was ready to come back to work as long as he avoided the particular temptations in the locale he failed with before. 1960's Psychobabble. But bishops, who should know how the sinful heart works, eagerly accepted the modern psychobabble and transferred the priest as recommended by the shrinks. That did two things, minimizing the real hurt done to the victims, and not actually protecting future victims. It also ignored the very real Lavender Mafia aspect, which is now out in the open finally.
I remember reading somewhere that a Church official stated that reporting offending priests to the authorities should not be done because Canon Law forbids it! With Canon Law they are indeed a law unto themselves. Be that as it may, seeing as how these revelations began with Boston a number of years ago and more recently with Pennsylvania I believe it is safe to assume that there are other places here in the U.S. where such cover-ups are yet to come to light.
This is a misunderstanding of a complex point in canon law. But it can be boiled down to it's essence. Basically, nothing said in a confession is to be revealed. That protects the person confessing. Nothing more sinister than that. Things such as this do need to be reported, but the source for that reporting has to be something outside what a priest hears in a confessional. It's like the privilege between an attorney and his client, still absolutely secret. The canon does not prevent reporting, just not reporting from the confessional. Bishops have done what all sorts of other people do, which is to hide the embarrassing stuff, but that's not the fault of canon law. It's garden variety cowardice. For a good, and somewhat enjoyable tutorial on this, Hitchcock's old movie 'I Confess' is really good. A priest hears the confession of a murderer, who then turns around and frames the priest for the murder. He cannot reveal what he knows from the confession, even to save himself. So he has to figure out another independent way of bringing out the truth.
There will be more to this. The new aspects are that now we get to look at it as part of a homosexual cabal where abusers recruit and groom teenage boys and young adults, protecting and promoting each other in the process. It was a misnomer to ever call it 'pedophilia' and not to link it with homosexual predation from the beginning. That was more psychobabble. This new way of looking at it will explain why it is more intractable, because it is not random individual priests, but a tribe/cabal/mafia. And finally someone should be able to create a heat map to see where the hot spots are. Since it often spreads by a powerful priest like ex-cardinal McCarrick abusing seminarians, who then become abusive themselves, we will discover the pedigreed nature finally and it will be easier to find it and root it out. And this time around the anger is palpable. The bishops are feeling the need to leave if they aren't going to lead. If they don't lead and won't leave, it will be no fun at all for them in this life or the next. I think they have awoken to that. Expect lots of resignations and removals, of priests and bishops and cardinals, maybe going all the way to the pope. We will holler if they don't come.
I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that this moment in history is on a par with the corruption that brought about the reformation, on a par with how the Arians grabbed control of almost the entire Church, and maybe on a par with when Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The Judas thing involved 8.33% of the whole clergy at the time.
