Hold up... these are apples and oranges here.
In the cases of the priests who were being moved from church to church, the issue had come up other than in situations when the offending priest was the penitent - so that isn't the issue at hand at all.
Rather, the problem here was one of inaction on the parts of the dioceses where these priests were serving - out of the misguided understanding that these priests could be 'cured' (part of the prevailing psychology of the time), or for some other reason. In many of these cases, it was the inaction of the individual dioceses themselves - because the bishops did not need the approval of the Holy See to move these priests to places where they would have no contact with children or to move them out of active ministry altogether. It is completely unnecessary to wait for the Holy See to defrock such a priest.
As an anecdotal example, I know of a priest who had a sexual relationship with an adult woman - something which from a purely legal perspective is completely above board. Yet when it was found out, he was removed from active ministry - I doubt he will ever return, even though the diocese needs priests and he is relatively young. He will likely never be defrocked, and probably won't be given a dispensation to return to the lay state. He will continue to have the obligations of the priest without serving in any sort of ministry - in a sense, he's permanently stuck between worlds. There is no reason that these dioceses could not do the same with the priests who were known pedophiles who posed far more danger than this particular priest will.
For some reason I thought the authorities weren't notified because who ever was in charge had found out through a confession.
In many of these cases, it was the inaction of the individual dioceses themselves - because the bishops did not need the approval of the Holy See to move these priests to places where they would have no contact with children or to move them out of active ministry altogether.
It's easy to understand in a huge organization why every personnel decision doesn't have to go to the top. What's hard to figure is why nobody thought going to the police was a good idea, or am I wrong and most crimes were reported?