This year marks my fifth anniversary in the Victim Assistance Program of the Diocese of Arlington. I approached Pat Mudd 25 years after being sexually and emotionally abused by priests as a child and teen.

Once again were living in scandal times.

Clerical abuse had been recognized for centuries as a grievous but fortunately uncommon failing. In previous ages, when it came to light Church leaders were inclined to deal with it openly and to punish abusers severely.

In a pattern exemplifying the dog's behavior in Proverbs 26:11, the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young, with hints of an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today.

There has been much advice given to the Catholic Church in regard to the sexual abuse scandals. There are, though, only two real options. The Church can become more Catholic, or less Catholic.

Olan Horne, 48, a survivor of clerical sex abuse, believes that Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States marks a turning point in the way victims of sexual abuse are treated in the Catholic Church.

This weeks sexual abuse settlement in L.A. is a welcome development.

To fix what is broken in the Catholic Church in the United States requires a clear understanding of what the current crisis is not, as well as a clear understanding of what it is.

As the Catholic Church in the United States turned into the twenty-first century, it was rocked by revelations of sex abuse on the part of a not insignificant number of clergy, religious, and other Church personnel perpetuated on young children and, very much more so, on teenage youth.

Recently I heard that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has opposed a legislative proposal that would require priests to report cases of suspected child abuse said in the confessional. Apparently, he said that he would even tell the priests to disobey the law and that he would even go to jail if need be. I am surprised how many of my Catholic friends are critical of Cardinal McCarrick. Isn't what is said in confession sacred and cannot be revealed by the priest?