Jim,

In answer to your question at the end of your post I think the answer must be an emphatic 'No' - which is what it must be as far as the church is concerned. The idea that offering to pray for the victims to be comforted somehow without locking the perpetrators up (which I've read in some of the responses from Irish priests and bishops) is simply obscene.

I remember reading part of the report and being struck by how the commission were still trying to remind people of the 'good' that had been done by the Christian Brothers - as if somehow they resented even being expected to look into the subject.

I've said elsewhere that it wasn't just the priests who have to be called to account - teachers, policemen, politicians, civil servants. social workers, school governors, doctors and all sorts of 'respectable', 'professional' all colluded to cover up the abuse and allowed it to continue as long as it did. Many of these people would also have been themselves involved in organisations that worked with young people in Ireland throughout the period in question - as, of course would many priests.

I'm afraid to say I don't think we've seen anything yet.