What next for scandal hit catholic church?

Just a few months ago Cardinal Sean Brady promised to resign if it was established that any act or omission on his part had been a factor in allowing any abuse of children to continue unchecked.

He has now admitted that, while still a young cleric, he witnessed two children - one just ten years old - signing a vow of silence about abuse the child had suffered from a priest (the imfamous Brendan Smyth) who continued to abuse children for a further 20 years.

Logic suggests that the condition Brady required for his resignation has been met. But apparently not. He says he will tender his resignation only if the Pope demands it.

Apologists will say that attitudes were different then; that it was understandably difficult in that earlier climate for priests (who take it upon themselves to pass judgment on the sins of their supine flocks) to recognise the difference between right and wrong. One poster here may well refer to the cardinals and others of the catholic hierarchy as "upper management" - and anodyne term calculated to play down the pastoral-care and morality aspects of the job spec.

I wonder when this stinking church, this cesspit of mutually protective vested interests, will get the simple message that child abuse is not only wrong but also criminal. Brady should have resigned, the Pope should have sacked him in any case and the gardai should have charged him with perverting the course of justice.