[JosephW]

Wish I had seen your reply before I type my screed :)

Sounds like a very good start, but with all the harm that has been done (and much of it is the media, but the episcopate can't shirk their responsibility), this should be done in an atmosphere that the public will see. Crimes against the faith (and other crimes) that have a public effect should be cleaned out in a manner that the public can see.

How else can anyone trust their spiritual leaders?

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, it has been made quite public by the Church. The Church has hired an independent auditor to look at the steps taken by each diocese to clean out the bad guys and guard against any more problems. The auditor issues an annual report. If you go on most diocesan websites, you can see something like an "Office of Youth and Child Protection", which lists the reports.

Here's the problem: the Church does press releases, has the information up on websites, but NOBODY in the mainstream media reports on it. In fact, they actively suppress it, because whenever they mention anything to do with the church, they mention "the pedophilia scandal" but never mention all the work the Church is doing to stop it ever happening again. (Of course, it isn't pedophilia, the victims were overwhelmingly adolescent boys. But THAT of course would conflict with another agenda the media has . . . )

It's a problem. The media shapes opinion not just by what they report, but by what they refuse to report. Kinda makes you wonder why, doesn't it?