To some extent, the Catholic Church has experienced the same process as the US Postal Service. While the number of USPS employees who’ve gone on sudden sprees of violence had led to the term “go postal” entering the language to describe such incidents, this is mainly due to the USPS being a very large employer. On a per employee basis, lots of other employers no doubt have a track record just as bad or worse.
However, the Catholic Church is not just large, but very hierarchically organized. In other words, it does have a structure that makes it relatively easy to police this sort of thing — an advantage that most denominations lack (as the article notes of the Southern Baptist Convention: “the organization is structured in a way that makes it difficult to police these preacher predators”, due the independence of individual congregations). I think that’s the reason that the Catholic Church has rightly been subjected to much more intense criticism and legal action than other denominations. It had the means to do a much better job of rooting out and removing predators, and not only failed to do so, but in a number of well-publicized cases, the hierarchy actively enabled predators to be transferred to a new location, and foisted on a new batch of unsuspecting parishioners.
"...but in a LARGE number of well-publicized cases, the hierarchy actively enabled predators to be transferred to a new location, and foisted on a new batch of unsuspecting parishioners."
There, that's better!
I just don’t understand why those that protected these ministers or priests are not being prosecuted. It’s my understanding that there is a duty to report for ministers, as well. Those that hide abuse should prosecuted right along with the offender.