In light of the PA report regarding egregious numbers of priests abusing minors since 1940″s: In the early centuries of Christianity, often sinners were required to go public for serious crimes. The local communities required penitents to wear sackcloth and ashes at the entrance of churches until their penance / amends had been fulfilled. The PA Report names the guilty in a way that is fitting, and, hopefully, offers some comfort to victims who need to see public acknowledgment of their perpetrators, many of whom are now deceased. What remains to be worked out is an ecumenical and government consensus defining a universally just reparation to victims and families and a standard of just punishment for surviving perpetrators in both civil and ecclesiastical realms.* This could be applied to all realms where sexual abuse is found – in homes, schools, medical residences, youth clubs, etc. Because of the lifetime trauma victims experience, the statute of limitations must be lifted in all sectors of Church and Society, equally, with no exemptions. Time to set things right in all realms. God help Church and Society recover.

• In 1888 Founder of the Paulist Fathers, Servant of God Isaac Hecker wrote, “The reintegration into general principles of the scattered truths contained in religion, social and political sects and parties of our day would reveal to all upright souls their own ideal more clearly and completely, and at the same time present to them the practical measures and force necessary to its realization.”   I.e., when the same truths are articulated in all or many sectors / institutions, the prospects for acting upon and realizing those truths are great.