The institutional sins were the coverups. The prevalence of sexual assault by church members is comparable, and in some cases even less, than for other churches, public schools, etc.

The meticulous, centralized record keeping makes it easier to go back in time to see all the crimes, something not possible with any other organization, public or private. Of course, that only makes the coverups more egregious.

It's important to realize this as child sexual assault is vastly more pervasive than you'd think. If the reports of Catholic incidents upset you, then you may not be able to handle the larger, sad reality.

Of course it’s the coverups that’s the problem! I do not fault the Catholic Church for the fact that priests raped children. I fault them for not immediately turning all evidence to the state, rather than simply moving the priest from the place where people were starting to talk about his raping to a new place where he could rape a new set of children.

The coverups didn't just protect the church and it's reputation though, they facilitated more child abuse by moving the abusers around.