Much still has to be taken on faith

The four-day meeting of bishops and prelates from around the world at the Vatican to discuss the protection of minors in the Catholic Church was unprecedented. But at this stage it would be a brave observer who declared it a landmark in this global saga of crimes and cover-ups. Having opened the meeting with the declaration that ‘‘we need to be concrete’’, Pope Francis left those with most at stake in this tragedy – the victims of abuse over decades – still searching for specific answers to their demands for justice.

The meeting suggested that perhaps the Church has begun to realise it can no longer be a ‘‘law unto itself’’ on this issue. The first and most obvious concrete measure in these circumstances is to provide the laity and the wider public with a precise record both of reported cases of abuse and of priests sanctioned for their actions. As incredible as it may seem, this sort of information is still not available in any comprehensive or accessible form.

The second is to follow to its logical conclusion the acknowledgment that child abuse is a crime committed against a person (the victim) and not simply a sin by a person (the abuser), and to render all tribunal powers to the state. Those who gathered in Rome would do well to see themselves not as the summit of a hierarchy but as the servants of the least of their flock, for it is on that basis that they are bound to be judged.