Can you elaborate on how you got those numbers in the 3rd paragraph? The article you provided doesn't actually support the statement you're making. The 1,700 priests were not 'discovered' by the AP, they were being 'checked up on' and found to be unsupervised after being discharged from their roles as clergy members. The names of the 1,700 were found through lists that the Catholic Church provided of clergy that they considered 'credibly accused' of abuse. It's also worth taking into consideration that many of the cases that are being reported are a) from adults who were abused as children, so while the actual abuse may have taken place decades ago, the reports are only now being filed and taken seriously, and b) the article you linked to cite 4x growth in reports is taking into account international reports, not just that of the U.S., while Plante's article is citing that 4% statistic from a US-only study. Quote: "“We’re effectively seeing a tsunami of cases at the moment, particularly from countries where we never heard from (before),” Kennedy said, referring to allegations of abuse that occurred for the most part years or decades ago. Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Italy and Poland have joined the U.S. among the countries with the most cases arriving at the congregation, known as the CDF." The Catholic Church isn't faultless by a long shot, and it's been demonstrably proven that they were involved in child abuse cover-ups previously, but it also certainly isn't as bad as it has been in the past.