And all of these sexual abuses are more about power than sexual urges, so it’s not about ‘repressing sexuality’ resulting in an aberration. It’s a lot like rape, really- not a true sexual act but an act of violence and control.

You’ve got the cause and effect backwards; the reason for a disproportionate amount of sex abuse among clergy (and other church leaders and even volunteers) is based on self selection bias. People with these pathological proclivities seek out these positions, and since they are very good at hiding their behavior it’s hard to weed them out.

and it might give the Church the push it needs to prevent the same from happening in the (near) future (on this scale) again.

I could swear that this is not the first huge payoff of this sort the Church has given, and it keeps coming up again and again. You did qualify your statement a lot though, it’s possible that at least in the NEAR future, they’ll be more vigilant. But experience shows that this is not the last we’re going to see of widespread molestation and covering up.

Though certainly sexual abuse is not something that only happens in the Catholic Church (it’s not even the a major source of abuse) it’s interesting to note the fact that it is almost always the CATHOLIC Church that gets into these messes. I hardly think that it’s chance that it is precisely the Catholic Church that requires celibacy of clergy, while others allow their clergy to marry and have children. If you take a group of people and repress one of their most basic urges, it’s not all that strange that a certain number, those weaker in self-control and morality, will crack.

It is not like the Catholic church has a steady stream of income that can be used to settle such cases.