The denial and suppression of information about the decades of child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests the Irish Catholic Clerical hierarchy is, according to the conclusions of the new report submitted by the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, nothing short of criminal. Criminal for the abusers; criminal for their bishops and archbishops. The enormity of the crime is incomprehensible in its scope and deeply disturbing in the complicity of its participants.

The description of the profound, widespread and repeated abuse is, in a word, sickening.

As bad was the stonewalling victims faced when pursuing a complaint against a priest. Complicit too was the Irish police force that many times refused to investigate complaints and instead referred them to church authorities to handle. The political and religious system was riddled with cracks through which cases slipped, some to languish for years. All because of a misguided loyalty to the Catholic Church in Ireland, which some psychologists might describe as an infantile need to please.

The Irish Catholic hierarchy, while claiming to address issues of abuse, hid behind the coat-tails of cannon law protecting accused priests from the ramifications of the due process of Irish civil law. They did this while at the same time ignoring the very church doctrine they claimed to follow. This underlines the hierarchy’s conspiracy of suppression. The affairs of the church were always put above the concerns or needs of the victims.

The pedophile priests were empowered by an inferred moral authority reinforcing their ability to deny – lie barefaced – when faced with accusations. These are the traits of true sociopaths. Their sense of entitlement, their lack of remorse or conscience, their ability to continue their actions against children regardless of accusations sets them apart in their criminality. As it does the actions, or inactions, of their protectors, their deniers, their superiors.

The widespread denials towed the church line and allowed a succession of Archbishops to side-track and ignore these vile crimes against Ireland's children.

What is unmentioned is the other consequence of the actions of these predators; the fraud perpetrated on their parishioners. These men – criminals - were not men of G-d; they were devout atheists. Logic dictates that they didn’t – couldn’t - believe in G-d by the nature of the terrible crimes that they committed over their lifetimes as priests.

Parishioners therefore were led spiritually by a man with the spiritual depth and capacity of a stone. Their intonations on the altar, their blessings, their guidance was meaningless. These were a means to an end; that end being the raping of children. As such their entire religious lives were a cover, a sham. The authority of their priestly actions was no more relevant had they been performed by a goat.

Their duties are therefore null and void; baptisms, communion, confirmations, marriages are technically illegitimate. How could they hold credence when they were officiated by a monster masquerading as a priest whose authority was certainly not from by G-d? There’s something to chew on over your next cup of coffee.

What’s next then in this uncovering of Irish clerical criminality?

The first order of business is the continuing treatment of the victims of abuse. The focus on financial compensation is something that will be dealt with in time. No matter what the outcome no amount of money can make up what has been done to these victims, many of whom have had their lives destroyed twice. First by their rapist; the second time by church denial. A system to ensure that this does not happen again should take the form, not of another government bureaucracy but, of a widespread secular - frank - educational program aimed at empowering children and parents.

As an institution the Catholic Church is loaded with rules for the faithful. There's a penalty for missing mass on Sunday, another of the use of birth control, the denial of communion for supporting a women’s right to choose.

What then is the penalty, one must wonder, for the crime of raping children? How about the deliberate covering up the crimes? Excommunication is the highest Catholic punishment available. Will it apply retroactively to the rapists and their silent conspiratorial superiors? That would be an action that would show that the Catholic Church is taking its responsibility to address these crimes seriously.

If indeed the Catholic hierarchy were as complicit as the report states, they are as morally repugnant as the predators they employed. Their inaction, delay, denial and ignoring of accusations allowed countless others to be molested and increased the depth of suffering.

If G-d is as just as we are told, the hierarchy will be enjoying the heat from the same fires as the abusers who raped Irish children for so long.

Irish victims of sexual abuse needing help should contact One In Four, http://www.oneinfour.org or by phone (local) 01 662 4070. For information about child abuse prevention and crisis resources visit www.abusewatch.net in the U.S., or www.abusewatch.eu in Europe. Report from the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin (pdf): http://www.dacoi.ie/