No innuendo or witch hunt intended.
It's grammar. I'll state it more directly. The use of quotation marks in this context is usually an example of an "ironic" quote, is it not? For instance:
My brother claimed he was too “busy” to help me.
The quote marks communicated to me, as a reader, that the writer thought that the "abuse scandal" had no factual basis.
Do some air quotes while saying "priest abuse scandal". 
As a reader, that's what I perceived. I doubt that is what you intended.