Much ink has been spilled over the abuse scandals in the Church, and Father Neuhaus (editor of my favorite magazine, First Things) has so far produced the most balanced assessment of the situation. Here are the links to his ongoing “Scandal Time” editorials in the past few editions of First Things.
All three of these articles are rather lengthy, but well worth the effort in order to untangle this critical, delicate issue.
I think the most important line in this article is the following.
"Even if the figure were higher, it would still likely represent less than half of 1 percent of the 46,075 priests in the United States."
Here's a Washington Post article related to the previous post .
Catholics: Church in Midst of A 'Crisis'
"A growing majority of Catholics are sharply critical of the way the Roman Catholic Church has handled instances of child abuse by priests and believe the scandal has deeply tarnished the church's reputation, according to a national survey by The Washington Post, ABC News and Beliefnet.com. The survey suggests that weeks of media reports about priests who are sexual predators have led many devout Catholics to wrestle with long-held beliefs and assumptions about their church and its leaders."