just shows the hold the vatican have

it's my guess that bishops knew what was going on, deliberately kept the authorities in the dark but could be for a number of reasons.

personal gain: doing as they're told to protect their career

personal guilt: not wanting to rock the boat for fear of being caught out themselves

personal weakness: simply not man enough to put the law before papal instructions

personal faith: scariest of all. what good is a law against the threat of excommunication to someone who believes in eternal hell (qm)

if faith in an afterlife can make an ordinary man blow himself up killing innocent people there's no hope of true belivers coming forward about child abuse cases they know of. arguably an act of faith should get one out of guilt as it's acting under duress

The pope is the undisputed head of the church and as such is the undisputed voice of their god

he should answer to why he backed this ruling including why his god decreed that children who were raped would burn in hell if they asked for help.