"most of these crimes took place many years ago."

As I've pointed out before, so did most of everything else.

You ask: "now what?" - some mention of prevention, perhaps? We've seen a few half-hearted 'apologies' and niggardly gestures of compensation, but no talk of actually preventing the inevitable current and future abuse. It won't just go away because a few have got caught at it. The majority of past offences will go unpunished simply through lack of the conclusive evidence required for prosecution, and that sends out a clear message to any current and future abusers.

Clearly visible and stringent preventative measures need to be implemented, inspected by independent non-Catholic bodies and rigidly enforced, and if those measures should encroach on the lives of others, they should perhaps consider how they would feel about their own children being raped and beaten. It's a very small price to pay, and no decent human would begrudge it.

As for those caught and prosecuted, they should incur the strictest sentences possible as an example to others, and any compensation should be found by the church, the amount being an effective punishment to the church for knowingly facilitating such abuse. That might serve as a warning to other churches or religions or organisations where, undoubtedly, similar things are happening albeit perhaps on a smaller and less organised scale.

Call me obsessed by all means, but to refer to your comments about what is sacred to us, I have two small sons whom I would stop at nothing to protect, and whenever I hear of examples of the abuse we are discussing I think of them and feel like weeping. That is what 'sacred' means to me personally, and I have to say I find it slightly offensive to see that instinct compared to someone's religious ideals. I don't much care what people 'believe', but surely the protection of children is a more sacred principal than any of it?