What went wrong in the Catholic Church?

[Moonwalk]

9. Watch the HBO Documentary: Mea Maxima Culpa. It really explains "WHY"...

...the church all the way to the top has a policy of covering this up and always has had that policy. Sex, by the way has nothing to do with it. Power does. It comes down to the church not wanting to make their priests appear to be normal human beings who should be treated as normal human beings by the secular world. Priests, seen as chaste and apart from the world, offer the image of men with special powers--able to turn wine into the blood of Jesus, a wafer into the body of Jesus, able to forgive people and let them get to heaven, or not and they'll go to hell. That's a lot of power. And the fear is people won't believe priests have that power if some are exposed as common criminals.

This, in the end is all about having power over the faithful. You can't have a priest tell someone that unless they do what the church wants they'll go to hell if that priest is shown to be a child molester. Besides, the priest reflects on the church. So long as his sins are hidden, so long as he seems "angelic" the church seems angelic too.

None of this should mystify you. Religion often relies on leaders who use mystical trappings to seem above and beyond, special and supernatural rather than normal. This gives them power over people and the wealth to put forth their agenda and gain more followers. No organized religion is going risk losing that. And any organized religion (or organization period) that admits to aiding and abetting child molesters risks losing an awful lot of power and credibility. It's really that simple.