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DETAILED GUIDELINES on how religious authorities should respond to allegations of child sexual abuse by clerical and lay persons have been published by the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church. To be effective, procedures have to be rigorously implemented at all levels. And the unfortunate history of this difficult area is that three other attempts at ethical rule-making have failed to achieve the desired results. A culture of denial and cover-up continues to survive within the Catholic Hierarchy.

This time, the outcome may be different. Certainly, an opportunity has been created for Catholic bishops and religious orders to confront their shameful responses to the horrors of child sexual abuse and to shake off the unforgiving hand of history.