If we limit ourselves just to rape and sexual violence, and just to cases where people have managed to overcome the mental scars and been brave enough as adults and go through the trauma of describing what happened to them as children, and if we limit ourselves just to the cases that ended up being investigated, and just to the investigations that uncovered multiple abuse over a prolonged period, then the scale of the crimes is still too appalling for most to contemplate.
Major abuse scandals have been uncovered in at least 200 towns and cities all over the world. Most of the abuse is of children between 11 and 14 years old, but with some as young as 3.
To many, the most shocking aspect has been the Church's institutional determination to hide abuse at any cost. Their first reaction is to cover up the criminality, and offending priests have routinely been moved around other parishes where they continued to exploit vulnerable minors. Even with widespread concealment and reluctance to investigate, the Holy See still ended up looking at long-term sex abuse allegations against about 3000 priests between 2001 and 2010.
Watching national news coverage of the Papacy you could be forgiven for thinking that the Church is determined to do something about the abuse. You could be forgiven for not knowing that when the Archbishop of Vienna resigned over multiple sex abuse allegations, he remained a Cardinal; or that the Church refused to initiate an investigation when a book was published estimating the number of his victims at over 2000. You could be forgiven for not knowing that when the Archbishop of Boston resigned because it became obvious that he'd been covering up sexual abuse by his priests, the Pope gave him a major position in a major church in Rome. You could be forgiven for not knowing that in 2011 a submission was lodged with the International Criminal Court accusing the Pope and three cardinals of crimes against humanity by failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence in a "systematic and widespread" concealment which included failure to co-operate with relevant law enforcement agencies. Or for not knowing that last year Pope Francis admitted a 2000 case backlog of sex abuse investigations. Or that he began 2018 by accusing victims of fabricating allegations.
In many countries Priests are protected from civil investigation and prosecution by various archaic laws. And the nature of the crimes means that statutes of limitation often prevent perpetrators from being brought to book. Despite that, over 100 priests have been convicted since authorities started paying attention; and that’s just in Australia. In recent decades the Church has spent two or three billion dollars just on settling sex abuse cases. And that may be a clue to why Pope Francis has changed his tune and described his previous comments as a "tragic error". But there have still been no concrete measures by the Church either to prosecute abusers or to help victims.
If my friend really did intend fallen priests to refer to perpetrators of abuse, then let's hope for his sake that he travels on airplanes with a better safety record than the Catholic Church.