Father, forgive me for I've sinned, it's been a long time since I've been to church or to Confession.

That's no big deal, my son. Things have changed in the Catholic Church since you've been away.

Father?

Haven't you been reading the papers, my son? Every week another priestly scandal is revealed, another story about a molester quietly shuffled from parish to parish, while victims were silently paid off.

I've read about it, and it is heart wrenching, father.

What these guilty priests did to our young and innocent was unconscionable, my son. They abused their trust, the high status they were given within their communities, to exploit these children and scar them forever, and now trust in the Church is shattered forever.

Father, why didn't the Church fire those priests and report them to the authorities?

The reason is simple. Those who are in positions of power in the Catholic Church can sometimes be as ambitious and worldly as men in secular positions of power. They can be seduced by their desire to advance. They hushed up these scandals, transferred the guilty priests and paid off the victims so as not to have a black mark on their records.

But those transferred priests continued to harm other innocent children, father!

I know it, my son. And when these efforts to conceal finally went public, look how Bishop Law of Boston, as one example, responded. He stonewalled, hid behind legalistic terms and even had his lawyers attempt to blame the victims. You'd think he was being advised by the Clinton Administration.

It was disturbing to hear a man of Christ come across like a Washington politician, father.

And the way the Cardinals responded after their meeting in Rome wasn't much better. While American Catholics were clamoring for clear and direct action to resolve this problem, the Cardinals remained vague. Only two of them showed up at the news conference following the event.

Won't America's bishops be meeting to discuss this problem soon?

Yes, my son, they'll meet in Dallas in a few weeks. Some bishops say they will take a get-tough, zero-tolerance position to prevent innocent children from being abused in the future. They say they'll turn over suspected priests to the authorities, too. But the fact is this problem has been around a long time. Big scandals were breaking back in 1985, yet the Church still hasn't taken any bold and decisive measures to deal with this problem.

But father, I thought the mission of every priest, bishop and cardinal is to spread God's love and truth? I thought all Christians, especially those in religious orders, were supposed to be Christ like and serve honestly and humbly?

My son, the truth is that most priests do just that. They make great sacrifices to be priests and they do so, or are supposed to do so, because they have responded to a higher calling. They are good men and they bow before God and their parishioners to serve.

That is surely the case with most of the priests I have known, father.

And it is also true that the Church has done tremendous good for the world. The Church fights to protect the dignity of humans, spread peace and stand up for truth all across the globe. There are still great amounts of beauty and goodness in the Church, in spite of its recent human failings.

We should not lose sight of this truth, father.

But our Church has made a wrong turn somewhere. Pride and arrogance and crass politicking have been standing in the way of truth in this case, my son. Some of the priests, bishops and cardinals, who are expected to be the caretakers of God's truth and teachings, are apparently more interested in protecting themselves, their pals and their positions.

Some of them surely aren't being Christ like, father.

It is true, my son. To be Christ-like, we all must embrace the virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude. Above all, we must be humble and willing to sacrifice our own worldly comforts to acquire higher truth and beauty. Some priests, bishops and cardinals aren't demonstrating their grasp of this concept.

Well, father, I have my own challenges with the virtues, and that's why I came to Confession.

My son, that is precisely what I've been trying to tell you. If anyone needs to go to Confession, it is the church.

Tom Purcell