The Vatican revealed in May 2014 that over the past 10 years...it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, and how it's handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004....The figures only cover cases handled directly by the Holy See, not those handled by local diocesan tribunals, meaning the total number of sanctioned priests is likely far higher........Only in 2010 did the Vatican tell bishops and superiors to report credible cases 'to police' where local reporting laws require them to....the Vatican began also in 2010 resorting more and more to the lesser penalty of sentencing accused priests to a lifetime of penance and prayer rather than defrocking them!....and so it goes!