The Roman Catholic sex abuse

With the release of new documents from the Los Angeles diocese, the Catholic sex abuse issue is back in the news in the United States.

What's striking to me though, is that the large number of cases reported in America and in Ireland is enormous compared to what has been reported in other traditionally European Catholic countries, like France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Is there a broader cover-up in Europe or were Catholic priests there, significantly much better-behaved than their American counterparts? I believe instead that Catholic officials in Europe were more astute in keeping the lid over the whole issue. This might say an awful lot about free-speech as we know it in America...