I for one am more than pleased that the Holy Father has come forward and addressed in a very bold way the issue of predators among the clergy. While as I have posted before it is not a problem that is limited to Roman Catholic Clergy, nor simply among clergymen in general, as we have seen it exists in families of all and no religious belief, Judges, Police, School Teachers, etc. It is an evil in all socioeconomic strata, and is always wrong.
What I admire most is that the Holy Father is showing us an example of how while the human aspect of the Church has those who fall, and sin; it is the duty of the Church which is given moral authority by none other than Christ Jesus to take a leadership role in admitting the faults of the members, clergy or lay alike, and to remedy the problem through enforcing Canon law that has been overlooked in the past forty odd years, and taking to task those who committed the crimes, (civil and spiritual) as well as (hopefully) those who stood by and did nothing to stop them.
I’ll be backing up the Holy Father by praying for his intentions a little bit more each day.