"In the United States the period from 1900 to 1960 can be considered a golden age of the priesthood, not merely in modern times but throughout all the Catholic centuries. While priests of that era certainly had their faults, by all measureable standards there was less ignorance, less immorality, less neglect of duty, and less disobedience than at almost any time in the history of the Church. More positively, priests of that era were generally pious and zealous, and those who were not at least had to pretend to be"
(James Hitchcock, "He´s the Last One I Would Have Expected", San Francisco Faith, September 1999 : quoted in Michael S. Rose "Goodbye, Good Men")
Doesn´t that just about say it all?!
I think the same would apply to Europe too, and the whole World!