Well, you have a point, but it is related to many events that are being dealt with. Much of that scandal happened during the same period we could not stop the government from funding art shows of
photographs of little boys being raped, if you recall, remember Mapplethorpe? Those families who faced ineffective Bishops also faced ineffective secular authorities, too, and so the hush-hush atmosphere prevailed. But change has been happening and a lot of it is due to discussion boards, for example: [
www.bishopaccountability.org]
Laity are a lot more outspoken now and are much more aggressively informing each other about these problems with less fear of repercussions. The church is not as monolithic as it appears to outsiders. The present pope has been one of the strongest opponents of permissiveness and he is supporting investigations instead of discouraging them. And to be fair, if you google "sexual molestation" or a related term and any professional title besides "priest", for example, "sheriff" or "social worker" you will see a ton of cases that also have been hidden, shoved aside, etc. Just look at the Texas Youth Service scandal. Nothing has really changed there, either, and it is not any different from what goes on in so many of the youth rehab and residential school centers outside the Church. It is a universal issue. Look at some of the threads opened up recently on Muslim boy-rape culture, for example.
This discussion of cults inside the church is just exactly what helps clean up these things, just like the other discussions of cults inside the commercial world, jesus-commune world or the new-age spirituality world also involve lots of discussions of abuse of families and their children.
The cults are the channels through which these abuses are covered up and perpetuated. If we can cut through the cult-fog, we can ensure a more abuse-free environment.