The very fact that the Catholic Church in India has decided to conduct a special meeting to discuss the issue of sexual abuse by priests tells its own story. It is not as though there is suddenly too much of it apparently there were always a few cases but too much has become known. The Indian church intends to pay special attention to child sexual abuse. That is in tune with the times, since the Vatican has recently been trying to defend itself against allegations that all over the world, its cardinals have tended to protect priests caught abusing children. The policy guidelines being envisaged by the Catholic Church in India include "thorough investigation and stricter action" against the alleged offender, suggesting that it is a matter internal to the church. As has been the tradition in the Catholic Church everywhere. The Vatican's most recent guidelines, however, show a major shift. They now permit complaints to the civil authorities. The modified tone suggests how serious the problem has become for the Vatican.

When a long-kept, though open, secret can no longer be contained within the bounds of a powerful institution, the revelations are both staggering and ugly. Pope Benedict XVI has reportedly failed to mollify irate critics and victims' groups in spite of his apology to victims of abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland. However gentle his sympathy for the children's pain, or strong his condemnation of the "crime" committed by priests, he has been criticized for apparently suggesting that clerical sex abuse is an Irish, or at most, an anglophone phenomenon. Across Europe, the United States of America and Latin America, lists of paedophile priests and the protection they receive bring the critics' argument home. In the bitter murkiness that inevitably surges up in such situations, the pope's past preference for