Reports about the first part of a major study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice indicates that the prevalence of sexual abuse among Roman Catholic clergy is not different than in the general population, e.g., teachers, etc.
While the bishops apparently feel somewhat "relieved" that the incident rates are no worse than others, it does cause some heartburn that they are no better. What this has to say about the religious institution is unclear, but ....
It misses the point about the real crime which was the practice of not assigning criminal liability to these priests per the first instance. Rather than forwarding priests to be prosecuted, as would a school system do with a teacher involved in sex abuse, they covered up the matter and reassigned priests so that the behavior could continue.
I do not think that there is any comparable behavior in any other institution.
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