Mary E. Hunt, writing for Religion Dispatches, reduces the Catholic child-rape scandal to its essence in this paragraph:
The details of the clergy sexual and physical abuse of children make clear that the crimes that went on for decades were not done by a few bad apples who spoiled the bushel, as Vatican officials have long insisted about the perpetrators. Rather, what comes into sharper and sharper focus with each new hideous revelation is that the hierarchical model of church, with absolute authority vested in a few individuals at each step up the ladder—a priest in his parish, a bishop in his diocese, a pope in Rome—is in and of itself a danger zone. Human organizations, especially religious ones, need more checks and balances to assure that those who have unfettered access to the young and privileged relationships with all who are spiritually vulnerable are monitored. Helping professions have codes of conduct, professional associations, and other means of making sure their practitioners are on the up and up. Roman Catholicism needs the same. It will never happen without structural changes.