Records from the Archdiocese of Boston appear to show that even after diocesan officials started tracking the sexual-abuse problem closely in 1993, they didn't face it:
"That is a fair thing to say: It wasn't until 2002 that we came to look at the depth of the problem that we had and we really began to address it," [spokesman Rev. Christopher] Coyne said.Even as late as 1998 or '99, there was a time to bite the bullet and expose the problem, because the jubilee year called upon us in the Church to admit faults and seek pardon before God and man. There were some such confessions and apologies, mostly for faults committed hundreds of years ago: a good thing as far as it went; but there was a spiritual opportunity to go further, to acknowledge sins and failures that affected people living now, and the Cardinal let it go by. One can only wonder how different things would be now.
