the Archdiocese of Sydney

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Good people always wonder how much good they have actually done and how much better they might have done it. Others simply wonder why the applause wasn't louder.

Who has not looked back in sorrow? And who, as well, has not done what could be done to ease that sorrow or the wrongs committed?

No one can perfectly right the wrongs committed in the past. But there are better and worse attempts to do so.

In the "better" department, I think the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, came up with a pretty good principle in its attempt to address the matter of sexual abuse in its midst ... a principle that any organization or individual, religious or secular, might take to heart when trying to redress wrongs committed in the past:

Helping victims always takes precedence over any concern to protect the church or the priesthood.

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