[Dr. Scarpetta]

The Church is really at crossroads here in these cases. They have to choose: defend the cases and lose the faithful or restore the trust of the faithful and essentially plead nolo contendere to the lawsuits, insisting only on some reasonable evidence that the abuse actually took place.

In my opinion, if the church believes in morality, it must not hire an attorney to attack a 6 yr old rape victim.

[CatoRenasci]

You make my point more succinctly than I did. Well, I'm not opposed to hiring an attorney and taking reasonable precautions to separate real victims from those who would prey on the Church in its weakness, but no more.

The local archbishop or cardinal should personally visit (unless the victims or their parents do not wish him to) every abuse victim, make sure he or she has whatever counselling and support is necessary and offer generous financial settlments. The Cardinal/Archbishop should diretly and personally acknowledge that the Church breached the trust of the victim and his or her family.

Anything less is inadequate.