""If someone on earth can do that, what is the point of judgement day?""

I believe I am right in saying that only the Pope can excommunicate or decide what actions warrant excommunication, which is basically analogous with banishment or exile by kings , of transgressing subjects.

It is one of the areas of his infallibility, and it is an interesting fact that for a sigificant period in the twentieth century, reading Lady Chatterley's Lover could lead to excommunication.

I believe there are still books that catholics are debarred from reading.

My point wasn't about any of that. It was about the Church dissociating itself from the child abusers in the most serious and final manner possible within catholic doctrine and dogma, as a better protection of reputation than covering up abuse.

I don't particularly believe in Heaven, Hell, Limbo or Purgatory. I just think whitewashing an institution isn't the same as proving it is intrinsically white.

Don T.