“GENEVA — The Vatican revealed Tuesday that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/vatican-reveals-how-many-priests-defrocked-for-sex-abuse-since-2004/
I wouldn’t call that a handful. I believe there were also many not reported.
It was/is a plague.
Worse, these priests were shuffled around by bishops to protect them.
and that’s just since 2004....who knows the real total?