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that they fall short of the evidentiary criteria needed for actual criminal prosecution.

Maybe you didn't read the article closely enough.

Victims of the abuse, who are now in their 50s to 80s, lobbied long and hard for an official investigation. They say that for all its incredible detail, the report doesn't nail down what really matters — the names of their abusers.
The Catholic religious orders that ran more than 50 workhouse-style reform schools from the late 19th century until the mid-1990s offered public words of apology, shame and regret Wednesday. But when questioned, their leaders indicated they would continue to protect the identities of clergy accused of abuse — men and women who were never reported to police, and were instead permitted to change jobs and keep harming children.

WHO never reported the crimes to the police? The Roman Catholic authorities who admitted they KNEW of these crimes but chose instead to protect sexual perverts for over a century.

Buckley, who said she was abused at an orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy, which ran several refuges for girls where the report documented chronic brutality, said the religious orders for years branded the victims as money-seeking liars — and were incapable of admitting their guilt today.

Nothing new there. Deny, deflect, and protect the abusers at all costs for over a century.

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger.

"Increased the danger?" Astounding. Are we to think the Roman Catholic hierarchy paid out all this money and admitted these events occurred for over 100 years because this abuse DIDN'T happen?

Ireland's myriad religious orders, much like their mother church, have been devastated by 15 years of scandals involving past cover-ups of abusers in their ranks.

lol. "Fifteen years" obviously doesn't come close.

"Most of these orders will literally die out in Ireland within the next generation or so," said Michael Kelly, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper in Dublin. "Many of them are already in wind-up mode. They lack the confidence even to seek new vocations (recruits), due to the stigma associated with their members' shocking, scandalous behavior."

If the editor of the Roman Catholic newspaper in Dublin believes these reports, why would you question them?

The Irish government, which in 1999 apologized for its role in permitting decades of abuse and established the commission to nail down the full truth of the matter, has tried to use money to bring closure to the victims.

Sounds like they may have come close to "nailing down the full truth," except that this "truth" omits the names of the pederasts, and absolves the Roman Catholic church of wrong-doing by forbidding the victims to sue the church. Same old, same old. "Take this cash for your pain and suffering and broken lives, and shut your mouth. Now return to church and confess your sins to 'another Christ.'"

In July, 2007, in Los Angeles, the Roman Catholic archdiocese paid out over $700 million to victims of pederast priests and the RCC's secretive disdain for the victims. Add this $700 million to the $300 million paid out the previous year in Los Angeles, and the total paid out to victims by the L.A. RCC becomes over one billion dollars.

And the more that RCs make excuses for their pederast priests, the more this abuse will continue.

A government-appointed panel has paid 12,000 survivors of the schools, orphanages and other church-run residences an average of $90,000 each — on condition they surrender their right to sue either the church or state. About 2,000 more claims are pending. Irish Catholic leaders cut a controversial deal with the government in 2001 that capped the church's contribution at $175 million — a fraction of the final cost.

God willing, Roman Catholics really will wake up and begin to think about what's best "for the children."

I didn't say that Catholic religious orders were not at fault in their failure to bring timely criminal charges. Nobody. brought timely criminal charges: not the Church, not the State, not the witnesses, not the victims.

That's just the problem. If you do not press criminal charges promptly, you blow the possibility of having a successful criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.

If I had any suspecion that a Church employee (or a public employee, or anyone else) were abusing a child, I would go to the police FIRST. Not the school principal, not the pastor, not the press: the police. I think all of us would. You won't find anyone disagreeing on that.

But when questioned, their leaders indicated they would continue to protect the identities of clergy accused of abuse — men and women who were never reported to police, and were instead permitted to change jobs and keep harming children.

I would think that this would be something all Christians would be outraged by. Abuse can happen anywhere but once a problem is known it's what you do that matters.

I read in an earlier post that trauma can cause the brain to be altered and the victim can suffer with the consequences of this for the rest of their life. The least Christians can do is seek the truth and hold those that abuse, or protect abusers, accountable.