""Also, the secrecy of it all speaks volumes.""

What bothers me is that this is an indication that the Church was aware of this problem 48 years ago, and was even then pursuing a deliberate policy of internal investigation and coverup.

I don't like to imagine the number of victims sworn to secrecy, on pain of excommunication, who have never come forward and whose abusers have avoided the proper consequences of their crimes.

This needs more than a few glib words of reassurance from one of those who knew what was happening and did nothing to prevent it.

Don T.