Three men, one current priest and two former, have authored a report on the history of how the Church has dealt with clergy sexual abuse throughout the ages. They are Fr. Tom Doyle, Richard Sipe, and Patrick Wall. I don’t trust Sipe: he’s too quick to dismiss homosexuality as a problem in the Scandal. And while Doyle was once a hero in the vanguard of exposing the Scandal, he’s become too chummy with VOTF, started espousing some strange views on Church teaching, and had his military chaplaincy career end on a sour note. Thus the motives behind the book are suspect.
Also, far from the article’s claim, what they reveal of the study is not that the Church has failed to address priestly sex abuse successfully, but that she addressed it very well in the past, but became lax in the recent past. St. Basil in the 4th century had perverts flogged and put in chains for six months. In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX ordered perverts expelled from the priesthood and turned over the secular authorities. As for the claim that in 1962 the Vatican changed everything and opted for a more secretive process that is responsible for the mess of today, that’s just bunk. I’ve already exposed the truth about that document in some details. (Also here, here, here, here, and here.)
Isn’t it amazing how fast one can go from seeing the Church herself as wicked because of this or that scandal, to seeing the Churchs of success.
There are reports, for example, of lawyers armed with suspected priest abusererence to the comments on the liturgical abuse, my personal opinion is that it would be better to return to the Old Latin Mass and the rules and regulations in effect before Vatican II.