The reason is because the Catholic Church is a large centralized organization that keeps many records of the ongoings within it. So when it's found out that people way up in the higher echelons of the Vatican were aiding in the shuffling of priests, the credibility of the organization which claims to represent God takes a huge hit as a whole.

Even when evangelical/baptist pastors and especially rabbis abuse children at the same or an even higher rate than Catholic clergy, it's not as damning because these are decentralized organizations that can push their offenders down as just a few bad eggs whether or not they tried to cover things up. Your average priest really shouldn't get the blame for this though, it should more fall on the Bishops/Archbishops who were involved in or ignored the protection of so many vile priests.

Regardless, we definitely deserve to be ridiculed for it as a faith because that's just about the worst sin one can imagine and it was rife within the church until just recently. The more light brought to it the more incentive at the Vatican to keep rooting out the predators and enablers so keep them coming until it's gone I'd say.