The Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI have been under the media microscope this month, and it's not because Easter is on the horizon.

Revelations and allegations about sexual abuse scandals are bubbling to the surface across the globe, first from Ireland, then Brazil and Germany, followed by Wisconsin and Italy.

Most recently, amid the firestorm of coverage on the scandals, was an acknowledgement from a Roman Catholic order that its founder, a prominent Mexican priest, had committed "grave acts," reported to include adultery, fathering at least one child, molesting boys and participating in other misconduct before he died in 2008.

The National Catholic Reporter reacted to the string of troubling news with questions about the Pope: "The focus now is on Benedict. What did he know? When did he know it? How did he act once he knew?"

The revelations and rampant media coverage prompted USA Today's Cathy Lynn Grossman to ask readers "What's enough?" when it comes to media scrutiny and attention to the church's crises.

"If Pope Benedict called and fired a raft of bishops who failed to protect young people from known abusers, would this end the crisis in your mind?" she asked readers.

Grossman compared coverage of the sexual abuse scandals involving clergy to the public disclosure of the actions of Enron executives who committed accounting fraud and were subsequently berated by editorial boards and television pundits.

"Something about reaction to the news coverage reminds me of how the American public just loved seeing the alleged bad boys of that financial scandal arrested and led off in handcuffs," Grossman said. "There was something satisfying about the 'perp walk.' No matter how the cases were later resolved, there was no doubt those men were being publicly humiliated."

Grossman's analogy, which focuses on media scrutiny of perpetrators rather than the experience of victims, seems to suggest that suffering sexual abuse is about as traumatizing as losing your life savings.  That's a delicate and definitely arguable notion, to be sure.

But more to the point: Is the media coverage of the Church's alleged sexual abuse scandals a result of journalists' overblown pursuit of the ultimate "Gotcha!" moment, or is the current flurry of coverage simply a consequence of dutifully muck-racking journalists' encroaching on the hierarchy of the world's largest religious institution?

More than Enron, Toyota and other multinational corporations that have come under intense public scrutiny in recent years, the Church has a sweeping influence on people worldwide. The Vatican's more than 408,000 priests are enjoined to direct and minister to its 1.1 billion followers. That makes news of clerical misconduct that was allegedly known to high-level clergy and hidden from the public a matter of serious concern to people who trust the institution to act in their best interests.

While ongoing media coverage of the Church's response to the crisis might make some Catholics uncomfortable, the scrutiny is also an example of journalists doing what they're supposed to do; that is, they're probing the integrity of institutions that people depend on to do the right thing.

Considering the power of the Church and the gravity of the allegations against many of its clergy, it seems that most of the journalists covering the scandals have yet to cross the line that divides serving the public good from pandering to prurient interests. Stay tuned.

Zain Shauk is a Los Angeles-based journalist and a graduate of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.